head of Russia's unsettled Ingushetia region, has been freed more than six months after being kidnapped by gunmen.
Uruskhan Zyazikov was seized by three unidentified men on March 23 during a visit to a mosque in the village of Barsuki near the region's largest town of Nazran. He was released late on Thursday.
A police source said that Zyazikov had been abducted by a high-ranking member of the armed group headed by Doku Umarov, a Chechen rebel leader operating in both Chechnya and Ingushetia.
"The kidnappers had been holding him [Zyazikov] on the territories of Chechnya and Ingushetia," the source said.
He also added that a decision had been taken to secure Zyazikov's release through negotiations with the kidnappers rather than by force as there had existed a very real threat to the hostage's life.
Russia's North Caucasus region has been plagued with violence since the 1994 attempt by Russian federal troops to put down a Chechen independence movement that led to two brutal and devastating wars.
Of late, however, troubles have shifted from Chechnya to Ingushetia, and the region has seen a rapid escalation of violence in recent months.
