The Polish Foreign Ministry does not recommend" that Poles visit Chechnya, its spokesman said in a statement following the December 17 kidnapping of five Polish nationals in this breakaway Russian Caucasus autonomy. Polish officials claimed that the five had come there to deliver humanitarian aid. However, it has come out recently that at least three of them are activists of the so-called Chechen Information Centre in Krakow, embroiled in organising anti- Russian rallies and other actions and movements in favour of Chechnya. Spokesman Pavel Dobrovolski said the ministry called on the national media and agencies in concern to "refrain from circulating unconfirmed information and alarmist assessments" in respect of the abduction. Also, the statement asked these entities to display "due seriousness and restraint" when discussing prospects for their release. Meanwhile, the new Krakow-based organisation, which called itself "The Initiative for Freeing the Kidnapped in Chechnya," hurried to accuse "Russian special services" in having a hand, directly or indirectly, in the five's kidnapping, the statement remarked. The ministry sent a special envoy to Chechnya's capital Grozny and the Polish ambassador to Russia rushed for Moscow interrupting his Christmas holidays at his homeland, but all attempts to track the fate of the kidnapped since December 17 have failed so far. Dobrovolski told reporters on Monday the ministry had tried to come into contact with co-workers of the kidnapped but no response followed up. "The Foreign Ministry has learnt more about the kidnapped Poles starting from the moment of their abduction than about their preparations for this visit," the spokesman said. In his words, this fact indicates that they "had neglected elementary principles of responsibility when heading for such challenging territories as Chechnya currently is." Chechnya and surrounding Russian republics have been swept by a tide of abductions of foreigners since the end of a ... Read more