Notorious Chechnya colonel shot dead in Moscow

A gunman yesterday shot dead Russian army colonel Yuri Budanov, who strangled to death an 18-year-old Chechen girl in a crime that symbolised the rights abuses of the military in the Caucasus.

Col Budanov had been convicted in a widely-criticised trial of the horrific murder in 2000 in Chechnya of Elza Kungayeva, but was regarded as a nationalist hero by extremists and had been released early from jail.

The shooting took place on Komsomolsky Prospekt in southwest Moscow around midday as Col Budanov emerged from an office building, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement.

“An unknown individual shot him several times. Budanov died from firearms wounds at the scene,” it said.

It said that the gunman – who was driven to the scene by an accomplice in a foreign brand car – pumped four bullets into Col Budanov’s head from a pistol. The car was later found, partially burned.

A security source told Russian news agencies that the murder seemed to be a “contract killing”. The investigators said it appeared to have been carefully planned and Col Budanov had been trailed by his killers.

Elza’s father Visa, who took refuge with other family members in Norway after her murder, told the lifenews.ru website that “a dog had received the death of a dog”.

The motive of the crime remains unclear but it came amid increased inter-ethnic tensions in Moscow after unprecedented race riots pitting Slavic extremists against Muslims from the Caucasus in December.

The investigative committee said the murder could have been aimed at stirring up ethnic tensions, with nationalist groups already suspecting Chechens had carried out the crime as blood revenge.

“Given the prominence of Budanov it cannot be excluded that the murder was carried out with the aim of creating a provocation. Nevertheless it is pre-mature to point to ethnic groups,” the committee said.

Col Budanov was released from jail in January 2009 after serving only part of his 10-year sentence for Kungayeva’s murder, a move that provoked angry protests by Russian rights activists.

Just days after his release from jail, a masked gunman killed human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov as he was emerging from a news conference protesting at Budanov’s return to freedom.

Anastasia Baburova, a young journalist working on opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was killed alongside Dr Markelov in one of the most shocking killings in Russia in recent years.