A man convicted of banditry has been put on the wanted list after escaping from a mental hospital in Russia's southern Astrakhan region, the regional branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement on Wednesday.
"He has been declared wanted nationally," TASS cited the statement as saying.
The regional branch of the Russian Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that a man named Magomed Alkhanov, who had been convicted of banditry and sent to an Astrakhan mental facility for treatment, had escaped. His name and date of birth match those of Magomed Alkhanov, a member of Shamil Basayev's gang included in the list of terrorists and extremists available on the Federal Financial Monitoring Service's website. He was detained in mid-June 2021 for participating in an attack on members of the 6h Company of Russia's 76th Pskov Guards Air Assault Division. Investigators planned to charge him with armed rebellion, participation in gang activities and infringement on the life of service members.
On February 29, 2000, an armed gang led by Basayev and Emir Khattab attacked members of the 6th Company of the 76th Pskov Guards Air Assault Division in a woody mountain area near the Ulus-Kert settlement in Chechnya's Shatoi district. A total of 84 service members were killed in the attack and four suffered wounds.
