COLLEAGUES OF a murdered Russian human rights activist blamed her death on Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader yesterday, as international pressure mounted on Moscow to catch her killers and put an end to attacks on prominent critics of the state.
Natalya Estemirova (50) was abducted from her home in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Wednesday morning, and found dead in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia later that day. She had been shot in the head and chest. Suspicion immediately fell on the notorious security forces of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, who is widely accused of using kidnapping, torture and murder to crush a separatist rebel movement and eliminate critics and potential rivals.
“I know, I am sure, who is guilty for Natalya’s murder. We all know him. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov. Ramzan already threatened Natalya, insulted her, considered her a personal enemy,” said Oleg Orlov, chairman of the Memorial rights group with which Ms Estemirova worked.
Mr Kadyrov denied involvement in the murder of a “helpless woman” and vowed to find her killers. Somehow they took Ms Estemirova across the heavily guarded border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, where fighting between rebels and security forces has surged recently.
“I am sure the will be punished,” said Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. “She did very important things. She spoke the truth . . . and this is valuable, even if it is unpleasant and uncomfortable for the authorities.”
In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said Ms Estemirova’s death sent a “chilling signal to Russian civil society and the international community”. “This brutal slaying is especially shocking coming one week after president Obama met with civil society activists in Moscow, including those from Natalya’s organisation.” Hosting Mr Medvedev in Germany, chancellor Angela Merkel expressed “dismay at the killing of this courageous woman” and said her murder “must not remain unexplained”.
Ms Estemirova became the most prominent critic of events in Chechnya after the 2006 murder in Moscow of her friend, journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Her killers have not been found either.
At that time, Mr Kadyrov shrugged off accusations of involvement, saying “I don’t kill women”, while Russia’s then president, Vladimir Putin, dismissed Ms Politkovskaya as “extremely insignificant”. In 2007, Ms Estemirova won the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Prize, awarded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire.
