Romanian Youth Voice

Accused Russian War Criminal Killed in Moscow as Violence Continues in North Caucasus

Former Russian army colonel Yury Budanov, who was convicted in 2003 of strangling to death an 18-year-old Chechen girl, Elza Kungaeva, while serving as a tank commander in Chechnya in 2000, was murdered today (June 10) in Moscow.

Investigators said the car used by the killer (or killers) has been found, along with the weapon – a pistol with a silencer. They also said that the murder seems to have been carefully planned, and that one of the motives being explored is revenge. The spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said it was possible Budanov’s killer(s) had followed him for some time and that footage from security cameras in the area of the murder would be examined and eyewitnesses questioned.

Budanov was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of Kungaeva, and was paroled in December 2008. The case became a cause célèbre for Russian nationalists and has been linked to the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who represented Kungaeva’s family and was shot to death in Moscow in January 2009. A number of observers, including Oleg Orlov, head of the Memorial human rights group, were quoted today as saying Budanov’s murder was likely revenge for the murder of Kungaeva. The leader of the Russian nationalist movement “Russkiye,” Dmitry Demushkin, said he and other Russian nationalists “have no doubts that the tracks of this murder lead back to the Chechen Republic.” Demushkin predicted the murder would trigger a surge of nationalism across Russia

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12.06.2011. 11:32

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