Chechen women block federal route

Women from the villages of Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk, Chechnya's Sunzha district, blocked the Rostov-Baku federal route on June 19. Over 200 people participated in the meeting. The women demanded that the Chechen authorities should return abducted relatives to them or inform them of their whereabouts. Some 30 people have been captured and taken away by officers of Russian security agencies from the villages of Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk in the course of new purges for the last few weeks. The whereabouts of these people is unknown so far. Two people have been killed during the operations.

Communication between Chechnya and Ingushetia was broken because the Rostov-Baku route was blocked. There was a huge traffic jam on the road.