MOSCOW AP An executive with a Chechen oil company was abducted in breakaway Chechnya on Tuesday by assailants apparently seeking ransom the latest such crime in a region awash with kidnappings. Kaid Gaziyev who worked as deputy director of the Grozneft oil company was kidnapped in the Chechen capital Grozny the Interfax news agency reported quoting Supyan Saidov an officer with Chechnya's anti-kidnapping squad. The attackers apparently hoped to get ransom for Gaziyev and embarrass the government in this southern Russian republic which recently launched a crackdown on abductions Saidov said. President Aslan Maskhadov has pledged to stop a wave of kidnappings and other crime that has swept Chechnya since the 1994-96 war with Russia but he has failed to deliver as numerous warlords have resisted government control. According to Saidov 111 people including Russians and several foreigners remain in captivity. Russian officials have put the number at several hundred. Chechnya has run its own affairs since Russian troops withdrew in the fall of 1996 but no country recognizes its independence bid and Moscow insists that it remains part of Russia. vi/adc APW19981201.1055.txt.body.html APW19981201.0159.txt.body.html