← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Oklahomaman
Thread ID: 6222 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-04-18
2003-04-18 01:37 | User Profile
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A veteran Russian liberal politician, leader of a staunchly anti-Kremlin party, was shot dead Thursday in an attack that Moscow's police chief said was the work of a contract killer.
Sergei Yushenkov, whose Liberal Russia party was founded by exiled business tycoon Boris Berezovsky -- himself at odds with President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) -- died shortly after being shot at close range near his home in northern Moscow, police said.
"It is obviously the work of a professional killer," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Vladimir Pronin, head of the Moscow police, as saying.
The murder in broad daylight of a key figure in Russia's liberal movement and deputy in the State Duma lower chamber deals a blow to Putin, who came to power on the back of his image as a strong leader capable of dealing with rampant crime.
Interfax news agency quoted police as saying the unknown assailant, armed with a silenced pistol, fired four bullets in Yushenkov's back as the 52-year-old parliamentarian stepped out of his car. The attacker then threw down the gun and fled.
"I have no doubts this murder was politically motivated," Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov was quoted as saying, echoing the comments of other politicians.
Police investigators were also quoted as saying Yushenkov's "professional duties" were the likely motive.
Putin sent condolences to his family, calling Yushenkov a "man who saw defense of democratic freedoms and ideals as his obligation."
Russian television, which led news bulletins with the killing, showed pictures of a sleepy Moscow neighborhood cordoned off by dozens of policemen.
Russia has been plagued by a series of contract killings of politicians and businessmen since the 1991 collapse of communism. Eight months ago Yushenkov's fellow party member, Vladimir Golovlyov, was shot dead while under investigation for fraud.
Earlier Thursday, Yushenkov said his party was going to run in a parliamentary election next December. Liberal Russia has only a tiny following and its leaders formally expelled unpopular Berezovsky in a bid to garner more support.
Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider who fell out with Putin, founded and bankrolled Liberal Russia in what he said was a bid to establish a true opposition force to the Russian leader. He is fighting extradition from Britain to Russia on fraud charges he says are politically motivated.
"One thing is clear -- they are trying to instill fear in people. It does not matter who ordered it, who carried it out," Berezovsky told Reuters by telephone from London. He said he met Yushenkov a month ago to discuss "party matters."
Yushenkov started his political career in 1991 when he helped foil a hard-line coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He served three consecutive terms in parliament where he was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin.
The leaders of Berezovsky's front group seem to have the peculiar habit of turning up dead. I bet Yushenkov was outed in some internal power struggle or in a revenge killing for failing to make political headway in regaining Berezovsky's lucre. Anyone here disagree that Berezovsky's contacts within the obstensively "Russian" mafia are behind this?
2003-04-18 05:44 | User Profile
Russian Channel 1 last night interviewed Berezovsky from London, who point-blank accused Putin of ordering the attack.
I suspec that Berezovsky himself ordered it to pressure Putin to stop his attempts at extraditing of Berezovsky in UK courts.
It looks like Putin's struggle with the Jewish Oligarchs who looted Russia under Yelstin while millions suffered is heating up. Keep an eye on this one - the ethnic nature of this conflict is scarcely concealed now, and it might just break out into the open.
Walter