CHITA, Southern Siberia. July 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Siberian military district has stepped up the search for four servicemen who went AWOL from a disciplinary battalion in the Chita region on Monday, a spokesman for the district headquarters told Interfax- Military News Agency.
"Search groups are reinforced, Interior Ministry servicemen and local residents are involved in the search and required measures have been taken at the deserters' residential areas," the spokesman said.
Supervisors of the search are planning to detain the servicemen in the near future. "They have no money, and that is why the fugitives are likely to manifest themselves soon," the spokesman added.
The district prosecutor's office has launched a criminal case to investigate the desertion.
Private Dmitry Podolsky served punishment for desertion, Privates Andrei Danelik and Oleg Sklyarov for power abuse and Private Nikolai Firsov for theft. They went AWOL when repairing a boiler-house in the battalion's stationing area. When a sentry got distracted the privates hid in a heat pipeline that ended outside the territory of the battalion.