Chechen militants asked Turkish journalist for materials discrediting the Russian military

The militants, who kidnapped a Turkish journalist in Chechnya demanded that he would provide them with materials to discredit the Russian military, a source in the provisional press center of the Russian Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti.

Yesterday afternoon, the police discovered a cache on the premises of the Central Cemetery of the Chechen capital containing weapons, ammunition and three videotapes. One of the tapes showed a footage of "a group of criminals interrogating Eskan Remzi Yanar of Turkey's Anatolia Information Agency." The reporter had been kidnapped in Chechnya in January, and nothing is known of his whereabouts.

The militants demanded that their hostage pass over to western media a number of materials discrediting the Russian military and announce that the federal forces stationed in Chechnya had ordered him to collect evidence of a terrorist attack on a certain "theater." "Preliminary analysis of the videotapes showed that the theater in question is the Theater Center in Dubrovka Street," said the source. In October 2002, a group of militants had burst into the building, announcing that everyone inside were their hostages. Heavy human casualties had ensued.