KALININGRAD. Feb 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The two servicemen who deserted a Baltic Fleet unit in the Kaliningrad region earlier this week are not the people who tried to enter a village in the town of Nesterov overnight to Wednesday.
"This conclusion was made by forensic medicine experts of a fleet laboratory who examined the body of the dog shot dead by the unidentified people that tried to enter the village," a spokesman for the fleet prosecutor's office told Interfax- Military News Agency. There was no bullet in the body, but bullet holes made it clear that the shot was fired from a large-caliber weapon, not the Makarov pistol that is in possession of the deserters.
The search for Privates Alexander Popov and Alexander Yefremov involves about 500 policemen, servicemen and agents of the Federal Security Service, the spokesman said. The searchers have sealed off summer cottages in the Chernyakhovsk district of the region and are combing the area. The number of checkpoints on the roads has increased dramatically.
Popov and Yefremov, active-duty servicemen of a missile brigade of the fleet's coastal and ground troops stationed in Chernyakhovsk, left their unit without authorization early on Tuesday. They took with them two Makarov pistols and 32 cartridges to them.
The Chernyakhovsk garrison prosecutor's office is investigating the case.