Chechnya

Chechen fighters are demanding a ransom of $2 million for two Polish academics who disappeared while doing fieldwork in Dagestan in August. In a letter that reached Poland earlier this month, Zofia Fischer-Malanowska and Ewa Marchwinska-Wyrwal said they had been kidnapped and taken to Chechnya, where they are imprisoned in a cellar. The Polish government has reportedly refused to negotiate.