MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax-AVN) - An estimated 549 soldiers and Interior Ministry officials are still missing in Chechnya, Mariya Fedulova, a member of the presidential commission on the search for and exchange of missing soldiers, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
"In the course of six years, a group of officers from the Defense Ministry and other law enforcement agencies worked with the commission on searching for people missing in Chechnya. The fate of over 300 dead soldiers has been determined over that period of time," she said.
"This group has now been dissolved as part of the administrative reform. Officers who worked on that commission will return to their permanent service locations," Fedulova said.
The remains of another 300 soldiers are currently undergoing identification, Fedulova said. "There is a large amount of work: last year, the bodies of only 17 people were exhumed, and this year only six bodies have been exhumed," she said.