Chechnya Gears Up to Find Kidnapped Envoy

The Chechen government mobilized 500 troops and nearly two dozen detectives Saturday to search for Russia’s envoy to Chechnya, who was kidnapped after meeting with top officials in the separatist republic.

Cabinet ministers from both governments were overseeing the search for Valentin Vlasov, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s special envoy to Chechnya, who was abducted Friday while on a mission to negotiate a crackdown on kidnappings in the region.

“We will spare no effort in finding Vlasov,” Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov told reporters in Grozny, the Chechen capital. “We will also apologize to the Russian government and personally to Vlasov. The kidnapping happened on our territory, and we bear the responsibility.”

Despite the massive search effort, officials could not report any progress in determining Vlasov’s whereabouts in the small, mountainous republic, which has become notorious for the abduction of hundreds of Russians and foreigners over the last 18 months.

Officials speculated that the kidnapping was politically motivated and carried out by forces seeking to heighten tensions between Russia and Chechnya as the two seek to establish normal relations.

“The Russian president’s envoy to Chechnya was abducted by people who believe a peace dialogue between Grozny and Moscow not to be a benefit,” said Ivan P. Rybkin, Vlasov’s predecessor as envoy, who was dispatched to the region by Yeltsin after Vlasov was seized. “We did not think that people dealing with the establishment of peace would become a target.”

It was unclear, however, whether the kidnappers actually knew the identity of their victim before halting his car and abducting him on a highway near the Russian-Chechen border.

“Vlasov had always enjoyed great respect in the Chechen republic, and this crime has been a big surprise to the Chechen leadership, who are still in a state of shock,” Rybkin said.

Vlasov has held his post as Yeltsin’s special envoy since October and been involved in negotiations with Chechnya since early 1996. Among other things, he helped draft the peace agreement that ended the 21-month Russian-Chechen war without resolving the question of whether the republic is an independent state.

Rybkin said the Russian government will refuse to pay a ransom if one is demanded. As of late Saturday, officials had given no indication that the kidnappers had contacted them or demanded payment.

Two separate command centers were set up to investigate the kidnapping, one by the Chechen government in Grozny and one by the Russian government in Nazran, capital of the neighboring Ingush Republic in southern Russia. Asserting its sovereignty over its territory, Chechnya refuses to let Russian law enforcement authorities operate within its boundaries.

Chechen Deputy Prosecutor Gen. Magomed Magomadov said that Chechnya’s National Guard would be put on full combat alert to supplement the 23 detectives and 500 troops already involved in the search. Chechen authorities, he said, were working closely with the Russians to solve the case.

“Three main theories are at present being worked on, which include the possibility of kidnap for ransom, the aim of exchanging [Vlasov] for persons who are in prison in Russia, or to discredit the leadership of Chechnya and derail the positive trends that have lately emerged in the settlement of relations between Russia and Chechnya,” Magomadov told the Interfax news agency.

Vlasov was traveling from Chechnya to Russia with a driver and an armed bodyguard Friday when his limousine was halted on a main highway by gunmen who began shooting in the air.

Rybkin said that Vlasov should have been traveling with an escort and four bodyguards but that he apparently had a false sense of security after his many months of work in Chechnya.

The envoy also had not brought with him a phone that would have provided a link with officials in Moscow and Grozny in the event of an emergency.

The driver and bodyguard, who were left behind by the kidnappers, were arrested and will be held for at least 20 days as investigators try to determine whether they were in league with the abductors.

If the high-profile investigation does not succeed in freeing Vlasov in the next few days, officials said Saturday, they expect that it might take months to find him.

Gangs that have made kidnapping in the region a lucrative enterprise often keep their captives for three months or more before exchanging them for ransom.

Alexei Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.