MOSCOW, May 22 (AFP) - A Russian surgeon serving at a hospital in Chechnya was kidnapped in the troubled Caucasian republic Saturday, Interfax reported. The abduction of Sergei Predybailo by armed bandits in the capital Grozny came just a week after a Red Cross worker from New Zealand was kidnapped 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the breakaway southern republic's border. Police suspect the surgeon, who was in charge of the hospital's emergency ward, might have been seized to treat a Chechen criminal boss recently wounded in a clash with police, the news agency said. Predybailo's colleagues at the hospital plan to issue a televised warning threatening a medical workers' strike if the surgeon is not released immediately. Armed men in fatigues but without masks forced the surgeon into a car as he made his way to work. Russia's new Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin had announced in April, while still in his post as Interior Minister, that Russia would close its borders with Chechnya. Relations between the two governments have bordered on hostility since the end of Russia's disastrous two-year war with Chechnya in 1996, which left the republic with uncertain political standing and a huge arms cache. Numerous anti-crime campaigns by authorities on both sides of the borders have failed to deter bandits. A Russian general seized in a high-profile kidnapping in March has yet to be released.  