Grave of Russian pilot missing three years ago discovered in Angola

The Angolan authorities managed to discover the grave of one of the Russian pilots, who was missing three years ago, and, as it appeared later, died in captivity of the opposition movement UNITA in 1999, said the Russian Federation Council's Vice Speaker, Alexander Torshin, to RIA Novosti on Thursday after his meeting with Chairmen of the Angolan National Assembly Roberto de Almeida.

Torshin said that the pilot's name was Kashlin.

According to the Angolan authorities' information, there is still hope that the graves of two other Russian pilots Zakharov and Rogovets, who, most probably, suffered the same fate will be also found, Torshin added.

Referring to Almeida, Torshin stated that "a big interdepartmental commission including governmental and parliamentary representatives, which was engaged in searching Russian pilots and planes" was currently working in Angola. Now a total of 22 Russian people are considered to be missing in the territory of Angola, said the Vice Speaker of the Russian parliament's upper chamber.

During the meeting the Angolan side made it clear that they were conducting the investigation because they wanted to know how the Russian pilots had come to Angola and what companies they had worked for, Torshin said.

According to the Angolan authorities' information, Russian planes not only crashed in Angola, but on the territory of its neighboring countries as well, the senator pointed out. That is why the interdepartmental commission also includes the Angolan Foreign Ministry's representatives to negotiate on conducting search works on the territory of the neighboring states." During the meeting with the National Assembly Chairman, Torshin expressed his hope that the Angolan authorities "would intensify search of the Russian missing pilots."