Moscow - A spokesman for Chechen rebel leader Mr Aslan Maskhadov said yesterday three Russian officers had been taken prisoner by the guerrillas in the Chernorechiye district in the south of the Chechen capital Grozny, but the Kremlin denied the claim.
"We have received a report from (rebel) commander Zelim Akhmadov saying that three Russian officers were taken captive on Saturday," a spokesman for Maskhadov's London-based Chechen Information Centre said.
But an aide to Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's main Chechnya spokesman, said: "None of this is true. There was no such incident . . . It is disinformation."
