Moscow - Russian guards briefly reopened Chechnya's borders yesterday but allowed through only a small fraction of the thousands held there for more than a week.
The border was shut only a few hours after it was opened, with police with loudspeakers telling huge crowds of Chechens, waiting to cross the border in either direction, that they should come back today. On the other side of the border in Ingushetia, another impoverished Russian region, were large numbers trying to re-enter Chechnya to find lost relatives.