A gunman shot dead a leading journalist who founded a news-paper known for its fearless criticism of local authorities, officials in Russia’s troubled Caucasus region of Dagestan said yesterday.

Khadzhimurad Kamalov, the founder of the Dagestan weekly newspaper Chernovik, was riddled with bullets in the main city Makhachkala, investigators said.

The gunman shot him dead with a pistol as he was coming out of the offices of his publisher at midnight.

“The victim died on the way to hospital from multiple gunshot wounds.”

Mr Kamalov was the founder of Chernovik, which has been published since 2003 and won a reput-ation for its bold criticism of the local authorities.

The journalist had become known in particular for his critic-ism of the Dagestan interior ministry and had carried out investig-ations of unsolved disappearances of people blamed on criminal groups.

“It cannot be excluded that Mr Kalamov was killed because of his work,” the investigative committee said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists described his murder as a lethal blow to press freedom.