CHECHENS RAID RUSSIAN CITY IN KRASNODAR KRAY.

More than 100 armed men raided the city of Budenovsk not far from the border between Chechnya and Krasnodar kray June 14, Itar-Tass reported. Armed with automatic weapons, the attackers killed more than 40 people and took up to 500 hostages. Negotiations were taking place between local Russian officials and the men holding the hostages, Itar-Tass reported on June 15. Although Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev said he had not ordered the raid, raising the possibility that the raid was carried out by a dissident Chechen group, the attackers said they would release the hostages if Russia withdraws its troops from Chechnya.

In the wake of the Budennovsk incident, Moscow ordered law enforcement bodies and border guard units throughout the country to go on high alert, Russian radio reported June 14. The radio said that security was especially tight at airports in the North Caucasus and added that the Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry had stepped up security around strategic sites in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and other large Russian cities. On June 15, the Russian foreign ministry said the West should reconsider its stance on the Chechen fighting because of this attack, Itar-Tass reported.

In yet another spin-off from the Chechen conflict, Russian Cossacks in the village of Assinovskaya have asked that their region be transferred from Chechnya to neighboring Ingushetiya, Segodnya said June 14. The Ingush government said it was considering their request.

Fighting continued in Chechnya June 14 without letup, but again on that date, there was no news about the fate of Fred Cuny, the American aid worker who has been missing in Chechnya since April 9.

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