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Alert

U.S. journalist Andrew Shumek reported missing in Chechnya

The United States (U.S.) Embassy in Moscow has asked the Russian
Foreign Ministry to help find missing U.S. journalist Andrew
Shumek. The 26-year-old photographer was last seen on 28 July,
when he left Grozny and headed toward the surrounding mountainous
area.




According reports from other journalists, Shumek arrived in
Grozny from St. Petersburg on 24 July and stayed in a hotel in
the city centre. He did not apply to the Russian Foreign Ministry
for accreditation as a foreign journalist and apparently was not
on assignment for any newspaper or news agency. He did, however,
receive press credentials from the territorial administration in
Chechnya. Shumek had previously worked for several small
newspapers in the eastern region of the state of Pennsylvania,
U.S.
It is believed that Shumek, who does not speak Russian and was
travelling with obsolete maps, may have gotten lost in the
mountains.