HELICOPTER ACCOMPANYING STEPASHIN FIRED ON NEAR CHECHEN BORDER.

One of the helicopters accompanying acting Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin came under fire yesterday near the border between Dagestan and Chechnya. The shots came from the Chechen side of the border. It is not known who fired, why or how close the helicopter was that carrying Stepashin himself. Stepashin himself dismissed the incident as insignificant, saying that the helicopter had attracted the fire by “going a little too far over [that is, into Chechen territory].”

Stepashin had been flying to villages on the Chechen border, a trip made in connection with the exacerbation of the situation in Dagestan’s border regions. Stepashin intends to review the Interior Ministry’s mission there. (ORT, April 22)

CHECHNYA HAS NO DESIRE TO ACQUIRE NUCLEAR MATERIALS.