Two American Mormon missionaries who were kidnapped last week in Russia have been freed unharmed.

Reports from Russia said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $300,000, but the security forces and the president of the Mormon mission in Moscow said no ransom had been paid.

The two men, Andrew Lee Propst, 20, of Lebanon, Oregon, and Travis Robert Tuttle, 20, of Gilbert, Arizona, were abducted on Thursday while working in the Samara region of Russia, about 700km south-east of Moscow.

Meldin DuPaix, a Mormon official based in Samara, reported that the abductors had simply given up on collecting the ransom.

The Mormon Church has six missions in Russia and says it has made about 5,000 converts since being allowed to work there in 1990.
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