Sunday, July 19, 2009

Was Ramzan Kadyrov complicit in the murder of Estemirova?


I was doing some reading this weekend and JRL had a good article on the murder of Estemirova last week. I have since learned that Estemirova was Chechen and had been critical of Kadyrov in her writings and publications, much like Anna Politkovskaya had been in Russia of Putin. In fact, they were friends with each other.

Here is the article by Roland Oliphant in the JRL. Oliphant poses a good question in this paragraph...

"Filling in the intervening hours will be the job of the investigators Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promptly ordered to the region. On Medvedev’s instruction Alexander Bastrykinu, the chief of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office, arrived in the region on Thursday, will face some tough questions, and they are likely to lead to uncomfortable territory. How, for example, did the killers cross the border into Ingushetia, through a region where a massive “joint security operation” is meant to be going on to catch the insurgents who attacked Ingush President Yunnus Bek Yevkurov last month? Why were they not caught by President Ramzan Kadyrov’s supposedly all-powerful security forces? What was their motive, and whose orders were they acting on?"

The questions that Oliphant poses really lead the reader to one of two conclusions. The first is that the Border Guards are running a less than competent security program in Ingushetia if something like this occurred. The second conclusion would be that the there was some complicity on the behalf of Moscow in the murder of Estemirova. The Border Guards are a subordinate agency of the FSB, Putin's old agency. One wonders if Kadyrov maybe didn't ask for some help from Moscow in disposing of Estemirova? A somewhat tenious thread, I know, but not too unbelievable given what happens in Russia lately.

Sphere: Related Content

No comments:

Post a Comment