Anti-Government Webmaster Shot Dead By Russian Police

J.Tatar and a number of other readers alert us to the shooting death of an anti-government webmaster while in police custody in Ingushetiya, a volatile province in southern Russia. Police took Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetiya. "Yevloyev ... was a prominent opponent of the pro-Kremlin president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov [a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin]. Prosecutors have opened a preliminary manslaughter investigation after Yevloyev was shot in a police car in Narzan, the capital of volatile Ingushetia, a mostly Muslim region that borders Chechnya, Russian media reported. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Vladimir Markin, said 'an incident' took place after Yevloyev was taken into a police car 'resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital,' Interfax reported."

Comments

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[LurkerXXX]

Yeah, because police shoot people in the head (who they already have in their custody and in a police car) all the time. It just happens... right. I'm sure it's not just because he was stirring up unrest against the Russian government.

Maybe an alien had taken him over and they were killing it. Got any other alternate theories?

'The shooting injury'

[roman_mir]

Realize that Magomed was shot in the temple, that's a guaranteed way to kill someone. It was no accident, it was premeditated.

Re:Same old Russia

[Doctor_Jest]

Indeed. Why are we giving these twits money again?

They are a third world nation with first world aspirations, but they can't seem to get it right. How long before we get back to the old USSR? I'd guess sooner rather than later. Problem this time is, the US and Europe aren't going to let Russia roll their tanks into every Eastern European nation bulldozing their people into submission. Fool us once...

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[tetromino]

You are correct. He was eliminated for his views on the Ingushetian provincial government - specifically, for his views on Ingushetia's governor Zyazikov, whose policies have brought the province to the brink (some say over the brink) of civil war. It is a great mystery just why the Kremlin continues to support Ingushetia's current administration.

Sometimes, the federal government has to give its support to a competent, but thuggish, local administration in order to restore order and peace (see Chechnya for an example). But if the thuggish local administration is failing to do its job, why the hell is it still being propped up?

Re:Same old Russia

[dgatwood]

Problem this time is, the US and Europe aren't going to let Russia roll their tanks into every Eastern European nation bulldozing their people into submission.

Of course we will. You don't see any U.S. peacekeepers on their way to Georgia, do you? Well, except maybe for the other Georgia just in case the hurricane goes four or five hundred miles to the east before it makes landfall, that is.... :-)

Okay, to be fair, if they start to encroach on Georgia's oil fields, the U.S. might get involved. The rest of those former Soviet states, though---the ones who aren't sitting on oil---I think it's safe to say they're on their own. I'm not saying it's right; I'm just saying that if you think the current U.S. government is going to lift a finger to help anybody without it being for their own significant political gain, you've clearly been living under a rock the last eight years.

Bush Presidency Countdown Clock

Fool me... you can't get fooled again....

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[Anonymous Coward]

Better yet, suicide by cop. Instant martyr and story on /.

The odds are that we will never know the truth. If we do, there will always be some doubt.

look to the past

[Quila]

If you heard a report back in 2000 that Saddam Hussein had had yet another person killed, you'd think it was just par for the course. If rumor was that Bush allowed another fat-cat single-source contracting deal with his friends, you'd think it was probably true. Why? Because it falls in with that person's modus operandi.

Putin's Russia has been a very dangerous place for anyone who has opposed him, or even tried to investigate what was happening under him. Many are dead, exiled or in jail. So while I won't automatically put this in the "It's true" category, it does belong firmly in "Most likely true."

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[packeteer]

The odds are that we will never know the truth. If we do, there will always be some doubt.

Unfortunately this is something people can count on often. Corrupt officials use this as the perfect getaway. Not that i know what really happened here, i just want to comment on how often something ends like that.

they are baaaaaack!

[Locutus]

There was Putin and his public dislike of all things US. The radioactive poisoning. Some FBI link to a SPAMMER inside of Russia but Putins government would not let US prosecutors go after them. The election where Putin creates a seat so he's still on top. More anti-US rhetoric. And more recently the Georgia incident where Putin is the one in the press on the first and second day. After that it is the acting President but it was pretty obvious Putin is da man.

Now a hole in the head of a webmaster while INSIDE a Police car. It all sounds like the old USSR and KGB era tactics to me. Well, it was good for some while it lasted. IMO

LoB

Re:they are baaaaaack!

[kaos07]

While a lot of Russia's actions are to be condemned it's naive and one-sided to say that we have a new "Cold War" upon us due to the aggressive nature of Putin and Medvedev. The Cold War wasn't simply the USSR vs. the USA it was them and all their allies against each other mainly in geographical locations slightly removed from both superpowers. The new stuff that's going on is all within Russia's sphere of influence and the flipside of it is saying that the "Cold War is back!" if the US started intervening in South America (Which they already do).

The only reason it's a return of the Cold War when Russia pulls of crap like Georgia etc. is because the US, through Nato, has a huge presence in that area, something Russia doesn't have in the American hemisphere. US warships are currently crowding the Black Sea, a staunch US ally killed several hundred Russian civilians, the US is currently establishing missile basis in two Russia neighbouring countries and we say that *Putin* is bringing the Cold War back?

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[DigiShaman]

Got any other alternate theories?

Yes, the Kremlin is hard at work on another Soviet Union. Oh, and your votes count so long as your voting for the right people. If you don't, they will paint a nice red picasso with your brain matter.

Does that about sum it up?

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[MrNaz]

Russia is not the same nation as it was in the '70s and '80s. It is nearly broke, and has a disorganised and ill-equipped military.

As opposed to the US which has a highly organized military that is heavily dependent on the drip-feeding of massive quantities of tax dollars that are fast becoming scarcer and scarcer, fed to it by a government that is now so deep in debt that it it unlikely that anyone alive today will ever see it balance.

If you ask me, Russia has a greater capacity to wage war than the US currently, after when you factor in the miserable state of US government financial conditions and the world at large's hostility towards US military adventurism.

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[Gavagai80]

Yeah, remember when Czechoslovakia attacked its separatist region which German troops were charged with protecting under a UN-mandated peacekeeping operation?

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[Richard_at_work]

Jean Charles de Menezes, 22nd July 2005, Stockwell Tube station, London, United Kingdom. de Menezes was shot eight times while on the floor being restrained by several police officers.

Re:This is strange

[Vectronic]

Or, maybe its just 20+ years later and we have stuff like the Internet, and countless mobile phones... if it wasnt for the internet, would you have heard of this? Is it in your local paper? Is it on your local news?

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[Jesrad]

"Yes, Georgians did attack"

Well, not quite. The separatists and russian troops combined an attack on the 6th of august, and this is what the Georgian troops reacted to by going through Tskhinvali.

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[GnuDiff]

Just for the record, after Ossetians were shelling Georgian towns for quite some time, trying to provoke Georgians.

There is information circulating - in Russian, so I doubt it is of any use to quote here - Russian radiostation Echo Moskvi interviews - that Russia was preparing for the war for quite some time and trying to edge Georgia towards doing something that could lead to invasion.

At any rate, the probable truth is this:

- there have been tensions between Ossetian region and Georgia for quite some time, blood feuds and what not;

- it is conceivable that Georgian behaviour towards Ossetian inhabitants where they had power was as bad as Ossetian towards Georgian. This could be related to the old grudges when Georgians had to flee Ossetian territories earlier.

[You know a good old blood feud when you hear about atrocities commited from both sides and nobody can make neither head nor tail of it.]

- Georgian current president has been pro-West oriented, and plans were underway for making an oil pipeline through Georgia that would bypass Russia.

So, essentially what we have here seems to be Russia trying to prevent Georgia from supplying West with oil by egging on old feuds in the region.

As regards support for Ossetian independence - it is probably a good move. One can only wonder why did Russia went to war TWICE with Chechnya recently, in order to PREVENT their independence though.

Re:Don't jump to conclusions

[quadrox]

Seriosuly - compare what you are saying to what the US is doing. invading countries, guantanamo bay, anti-terrorism laws. etc. The US is not different, russia is simply reacting in order to stay in the game and not be controlled by the US.

Maybe what Russia is doing is wrong on some ethical level. But it sure as hell is no worse than the US, so get of your high horse.