Galinski and Kurzyniec were kidnapped in Chechnya along with three other Polish citizens by unknown assailants while trying to deliver a shipment of food aid. All five undertook the mission on behalf of the National Federation of Anarchists in Poland, of which they are all members.
Galinski is an editor with the Gdansk-based Mac Pariadka, the country’s largest national anarchist monthly magazine. Kurzyniec edits his own small political bulletin Marscho, also in Gdansk.
Although their primary mission was the food aid delivery, both carried press credentials from Zycie, a national daily newspaper in Gdansk. They had agreed to a request from the editor to write free-lance articles about the situation in Chechnya upon their return.
The National Federation of Anarchists reported that all five hostages were safe as of mid-January. Rumors that the hostage-takers demanded ransom from Zycie and the anarchists’ group could not be confirmed.
The kidnapping is the latest in a long series of abductions of foreign journalists and aid workers in Chechnya, usually for ransom.