MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The serviceman of an Interior Ministry Troops unit who was declared wanted in Moscow overnight to Friday did not leave the unit's stationing area, the Interior Ministry troops' press service chief Colonel Vasily Panchenkov told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Some media outlets reported overnight to Friday that the Moscow police are searching for Private Yevgeny Kursanov, who went AWOL from military unit No. 5583 located on the Ivanteyevskaya Street in Moscow. Kursanov indeed left the unit at about 5:00 p.m. Moscow time (1300 GMT) on Thursday. The search for him was organized later. As a result, he was found in the neighboring company's barrack. It turned out that he had never left the unit," Panchenkov said.
Investigators established that Kursanov was supposed to go on duty, but during the guard mount the serviceman received an admonition for scruffy appearance from a duty officer of the regiment and was sent back to his barrack. The private gave his bayonet to the on-duty officer of the company, left the barrack and did not return for another guard mount. The search for him started, and law-enforcement agencies were informed on the matter.
According to the regiment's psychologist, Kursanov, who was drafted from the town of Orsk in the Orenburg region in June 2002, has good physical health, but was not allowed to go on duty with arms for a year due to some mental peculiarities. That is why he was a member of the dynamic observation group. According to the psychologist, the private committed such violations before.