A videotape taken by a German journalist for the N24...

A videotape taken by a German journalist for the N24 network showed Russian troops roughly disposing of the handcuffed bodies of executed Chechen fighters was aired on the BBC and on Russian NTV television. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, snorted Kremlin spokesman, tried to deny, and Russian Defence Ministry said the television footage of mass graves in Chechnya was a forgery. The head of the Federal Security Service cooperation programmes directorate, Aleksandr Zdanovich, said "reports of executions are a bluff, and no executions are being carried out at all. The enemy is being destroyed in combat conditions. If we are talking about prisoners, then no prisoners have been executed either". Russian Deputy Prosecutor General, Chief Military Prosecutor Colonel-General Yuri Demin has taken under personal control the investigation into the German TV company's news reel on "tortured Chechens".