Maksjarip Ausjev, tidigare oppositinsledare och f.d. ägare till sajten Ingushetia.ru, har nyss mördats i Naltjik, huvudstaden i Kabardino-Balkaria. Mera om detta går att läsa på många sajter, bl a på Waynakh.com.
Så här skriver AP:
By SHAMSUDIN BOKOV
NAZRAN, Russia A prominent opposition activist in the southern province of Ingushetia was shot and killed Sunday by unidentified gunmen in at least the third such killing in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region in just over three months. Maksharip Aushev died when several assailants sprayed his vehicle with automatic gunfire from a passing car. A woman traveling with him was badly wounded in the attack on a road in the neighboring province of Kabardino-Balkariya, police said.
Aushev's murder follows the killing in July of Natalya Estemirova, a prominent human rights activist who was found shot dead in Ingushetia after being kidnapped in Chechnya. And in August, Zarema Sadulayeva, a Chechen woman who helped injured children, and her husband were kidnapped and killed.
"Sadly, the new killing ... clearly shows an atmosphere of impunity in the North Caucasus," Tatyana Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch, said Sunday, according to the Interfax news agency. "Civil activities, human rights and opposition activities have virtually become a form of suicide." Lokshina, who personally knew Aushev, said that he became involved in rights activities after his son and nephew were kidnapped in 2007. Aushev later got them released. "He started working in human rights in Ingushetia and tried to combat abductions. He was a very brave man," Lokshina was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Aushev had worked with Magomed Yevloyev, a journalist, lawyer and opposition activist who was detained and killed by police in August 2008. Police said at the time that Yevloyev was shot and killed after he tried to grab a weapon from one of the officers. Following Yevloyev's killing, Aushev took over his Web site, which was critical of regional authorities and reported on abuses, abductions and killings plaguing the southern province.
Shortly after Yevloyev's death, the Kremlin dismissed the deeply unpopular regional president, Murat Zyazikov, replacing him with Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. Yevkurov, a former military intelligence officer, has vowed to end abuses against civilians and quickly became popular in the region. "This heinous crime was intended to destabilize the region," Yevkurov said in a statement. He praised Aushev and promised to do all he can to track down Aushev's killers. Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has taken the murder probe under his personal control, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. (Kommentar: på vilket sätt skulle detta hjälpa till? Chaika har visat sig vara både totalkorrumperad och inkompetent. J.L.)
Violence linked to Islamic militants has continued to plague the impoverished, mostly Muslim province. Yevkurov himself barely survived a suicide car bombing in June. Yevkurov pushed for investigation into Yevloyev's killing, and a court ruled last November that his detention by police was illegal.
Yulia Latynina, a commentator and author who has written extensively about
the North Caucasus, told the Ekho
Moskvy radio Sunday that Aushev could have
been killed by people who were responsible for Yevloyev's death and sought
to hamper the investigation into his killing. Opposition and officials in Ingushetia
wouldn't comment on possible
reasons behind Aushev's killing.
Associated Press Writer Sergei Venyavsky contributed to this report from
Rostov-on-Don, Russia.