CAUCASUS:

Five hundred Interior Ministry troops were dispatched to Karachaevo-Cherkessia after violence broke out in a run-off election which pits an ethnic Karachaev against a Cherkes. The results of the voting were not available as of this writing…. In Ingushetia, three police officers and one civilian were killed in a terrorist raid which also claimed the life of one of the attackers. Interior Minister Stepashin blamed Chechen “bandits”…. Stepashin also said Gennady Shpigun, the interior-ministry general kidnapped two months ago in Chechnya, is now being held on Russian territory outside Chechnya. Stepashin said Shpigun would be released without payment of ransom.