Trip of Foreign Journalists to Chechnya

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

Another trip of a group of foreign media members to the Chechen Republic took place on April 11-15. It was organized by the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Journalists of Sweden's TV 4, of the FRG's Second Television Channel and of the newspapers Al Hayat (inter-Arab media, London) and Le Temps (Switzerland) took part.

During the trip they met with Alu Alkhanov, President of the Chechen Republic; Vladimir Kravchenko, its Acting Prosecutor General; the command of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' OMON special forces there; Belkyis Dudayeva, deputy director of Vainakh, the state television and radio company; Ilya Shabalkin, head of the press center of the Regional Unified Headquarters, and visited a number of social and economic facilities in Grozny.

In the course of the meetings the journalists were thoroughly informed of the steps being taken by the Russian leadership for the economic and social rehabilitation of Chechnya, of the work of the republic's bodies of power, and of the general situation on the territory of the republic.

April 22, 2005