Briefs

– Court Rules That Refusal to Investigate Beslan Crisis Managers Was Illegal

A court in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, ruled that regional prosecutors acted illegally when they refused to open a criminal investigation into the conduct of officials in charge of coordinating the response to the Beslan hostage crisis, the Moscow Times reported on April 26. As the English-language newspaper noted, relatives of some of those who had died in the 2004 Beslan school seizure along with former hostages had asked prosecutors to investigate the officials in charge of the response, but prosecutors refused. The officials include Valery Andreyev, then head of the North Ossetian branch of the Federal Security Service, and Alexander Tikhonov, head of the FSB’s Center for Special Operations. The Moscow Times reported that, according to a copy of the ruling posted on the Beslan Mothers website on April 19, the ruling was issued on April 3.

– Local Resident Killed, Servicemen Wounded By Landmines

Interfax reported on April 25 that a Russian serviceman was wounded when he stepped on a mine. According to the news agency, no other details of the incident were provided. Another contract serviceman was injured in a similar incident on the outskirts of Staraya Sunzha in Chechnya’s Groznensky district on April 24. A local resident was killed when an anti-tank mine blew up under his tractor outside Serzhen-Yurt in Chechnya’s Shali district, Interfax reported.