Russia has opened several criminal cases against Russian servicemen who participated in recent special operations in Chechnya.

President Vladimir Putin's human rights envoy to Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, told Russian media that federal troops violated the law when carrying out so-called mopping up operations in Argun, Tsotsin-Yurt, and Bachi-Yurt that were aimed at detaining Chechen separatists.

He said he received a particularly large number of complaints concerning unlawful actions by Russian servicemen from residents of the village of Bachi-Yurt.

Russian forces have denied widespread wrongdoing during the operations, and insist that individual cases of abuse are being investigated. The investigations, however, rarely lead to prosecutions.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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