Word: chechen
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Some of the murders appear to be politically motivated. Three senior Chechen officials have been slain in Moscow in the past three years, and other figures opposed to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov's regime have also been targets. The murder of opposition journalist Anna Politkovskaya is linked to her criticism of the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov, whose government is accused of torturing thousands of individuals. In September 2008, Ruslan Yamadayev, the brother of Sulim Yamadayev, rumored to be a rival of Kadyrov, was gunned down outside the British embassy in Moscow at peak hour. (On Jan. 13, Umar Israilov, a former...
...supporters do have his interests at heart." Some of the crimes appear to be examples of the Caucasus' tradition of blood revenge, where a relative of an enemy is as much a target as the enemy himself - a tradition that may have been brought over to Moscow by the Chechen diaspora. "You have to understand that Chechnya is Chechnya - it has had so many wars in the last decade," says Malashenko. "They have forgotten how to resolve things by law. All they know is violence...
...Chechen feuds may be only one factor in Moscow's rash of murders. The killing of the Tajik worker, for example, has many fearing the start of a wave of racially motivated killings. Moscow chief prosecutor Syomin has said that the financial crisis may also be a contributing factor, with jobless locals taking out their frustrations on migrants. But Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy director of the Sova Center, which monitors racially motivated crimes, argues that the rise in unemployment has nothing to do with the death of 14 Central Asian migrant workers in Russia in January. "The number of deaths...
...speaking out in Russia, a prominent human-rights lawyer and a journalist were gunned down by a masked assassin in broad daylight on Jan. 19. While authorities have no immediate suspects, the lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, had opposed the early release of a Russian officer convicted of killing a Chechen woman. More than 1,000 people gathered in Grozny, the Chechen capital, to condemn the shootings...
...Budanov's release sparked protests across Chechnya. On Tuesday, hundreds gathered in Grozny, the Chechen capital, to mourn the murders. Though Chechnya has recently experienced an economic rebound of sorts, the general instability of the region has reached far beyond the borders of the small republic. Just five months ago, Ruslan Yamadayev, the head of a leading Chechen clan opposed to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was gunned down while waiting at a red light in front of the British embassy in central Moscow. A week ago, Umar Israilov, a former Kadyrov bodyguard, was shot to death in Vienna...