MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax-AVN) - More than 500 servicemen are engaged in the manhunt for Private Alexei Khozeyev of the Interior Ministry Troops unit deployed in the town of Zelenokumsk, Stavropol territory, head of the Interior Ministry Troops press-service Colonel Vasily Panchenkov told Interfax- Military News Agency on Monday.
The colonel said that the search for the soldier was being carried on uninterrupted. As many as 400 Cossacks are engaged in the operation, their knowledge of the terrain and the locals being of great assistance.
Panchenkov said that the deserter had been put on the federal wanted list. "Examination of bodies found in a car overnight to February 14 showed they were killed with an assault rifle. But it is impossible to say whether the people had been killed by Private Khozeyev before examination of his weapon," the colonel said.
Khozeyev deserted his unit at 10:25 p.m. Moscow time (1925 GMT) on February 13 while going from a firing range. The serviceman armed with an AKSU-74 assault rifle was wearing a camouflage outfit. The command of the unit said the deserter had no munitions.
A VAZ-2106 automobile with bodies of two servicemen was found in the vicinity of the town of Georgiyevsk overnight to February 14. The law-enforcement agencies of the territory link the murder to Khozeyev.
Khozeyev was drafted from the Irkutsk region. In accordance with the information available to the investigators, he had got a letter with bad news from home before he left the unit.