"Ex-Russian officer who strangled girl is gunned down" June 11, 2011|By Mansur Mirovalev, Associated Press
MOSCOW — A disgraced Russian army colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen teenage girl was gunned down in a brazen, contract-style killing next to a playground in central Moscow yesterday, investigators said.
Yuri Budanov was sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping and strangling 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in 2000, during a war between Islamist Chechen separatists and the federal government. His 2009 release on parole sparked protests in Chechnya but was cheered by Russian ultranationalists and neo-Nazis....
Not to diverge too much, but I always laugh when I read about neo-Nazis in Russia.
What, don't understand the whole WWII Hitler thing?
On the same side as Russian nationalists?
Either way, someone told me or is telling me lies.
An unidentified assassin fired six shots at Budanov as the 48-year-old former colonel walked out of a notary office, Russia’s top investigative agency said. Four of the shots hit him in the head, killing him instantly, and his body was found on a sidewalk next to a playground.
The assassin left a gun with a silencer in a half-burned car that was found several blocks away from the shooting, the Investigative Committee said.
???????????
Police feared Budanov’s body may have been booby trapped, and for hours left it as they found it — face down against a curb. Sappers eventually confirmed there was no danger.
Rights activists have accused Russian security forces and their pro-Moscow Chechen allies of widespread abuses against residents of Chechnya, including kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Thousands of civilians were killed or went missing during and after the conflict.
So it was Chechens?
Budanov was one of only a handful of Russian officers to be prosecuted over what rights groups say were widespread atrocities during two wars in Chechnya.
During the trial, Budanov said he strangled Kungayeva in a fit of rage, believing she was a rebel sniper. Lawyers for the woman’s family also accused him of raping and torturing her, but the charges were later dropped.
Investigators said no evidence of involvement of ethnic Chechens in the killing was found....
Then who?
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