Financial Times FT.com

Chechen leader’s moves sow chaos in Caucasus

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: July 18 2009 05:34 | Last updated: July 18 2009 05:34

One of the last acts of Natalia Estemirova, the human rights activist who was abducted and found murdered on Wednesday in Ingushetia, was to document the killing of a Chechen villager shot for allegedly giving a sheep to rebels.

These two murders add to a fresh surge of violence across Russia’s north Caucasus, which is setting off a powder keg of Islamic extremism, top-level vested interest, interclan rivalry, traditions of vengeance and ingrained suspicion of the behaviour of human rights activists.

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