STAVROPOL, February 26 (AVN) - Servicemen of the North Caucasus regional border guard department detained two suspected rebels trying to leave Russia over the weekend, a spokesman for the department headquarters said on Monday.
The detainees - an Azerbaijani and a Chechen - had characteristic traces of gunshot and splinter injuries on their bodies, the spokesman told the Military News Agency.
As many as 570 Moslem pilgrims going on hajj crossed the border over the weekend. 164 pilgrims flew to Saudi Arabia from Makhachkala, capital of the Dagestan autonomous republic, that has just restored international flights. Border guards banned 119 people from crossing the border due to various reasons, including 57 people not allowed to cross the Dagestani border section. A total of 3,250 pilgrims going on hajj have left Russia this year.
Weather conditions were unfavourable for border guards over the weekend, and poachers operating near the Caspian Sea shore tried to make use of the situation. However border guards did their best to protect the country's sea resources and managed to detain several violators.
Servicemen of the Derbent detachment arrested two locals carrying 50m of nets and 50kg of kutum, an extremely rare and valuable fish, in their inflatable, the spokesman said. Servicemen of the Logan picket of the Caspian detachment exposed a motorboat ready to sail off. Another motor boat, three engines and 1,850m of nets were seized in the mouth of the Kuma river.
In the evening two unidentified people with 61 poached sturgeons were detained at the quay of the Bakhtimir village in Dagestan. Another two poachers with 113 fish were detained there at about midnight as soon as their boat landed.
In general, the situation in the area controlled by the North Caucasus departments remains relatively calm. No attacks on checkpoints and pickets have been registered on the Chechen and adjacent border straps in the past 24 hours.