An opposition activist and businessman from Russia's Ingushetia region in the country's southwest was shot and killed in his car on Sunday. Local authorities reported that Maksharip Aushev was driving near the town of Nalchik in the nearby region of Kabardion-Balkaria when his car was sprayed with automatic-weapon fire. The attack also seriously wounded a passenger.

According to the opposition website, the attack took place on a main road, but the full circumstances remained unclear. Aushev was a strong critic of the region's former president, Murat Zyayikov, and had led protests to publicize human rights abuses allegedly committed by government security forces.

Colleagues of the slain activist are shocked and many have spoken out, including Yunus-Bek Yevkorov, the Kremlin appointee who took over the position of regional president a year ago. In a statement on his website, Yevkorov said the killing was an attempt to destabilize the situation in Ingushetia and that he would personally take charge of the investigation.

Alexander Cherkasov, from the human rights group Memorial, told Echo of Moscow radio that Aushev had received threats and that in recent weeks he feared the secret services would take revenge.

Attacks on the rise

This is just the latest in an increasing number of attacks over the past few months in the North Caucasus. In July, Natalya Estemirova, a prominent human rights activist, was found shot dead in Ingushetia. A month later, Zarema Sadulayeva, a Chechen woman who helped injured children, and her husband were kidnapped and killed.

The Russian government has blamed the attacks on Muslim insurgents, who it says are backed by foreign cash which threatens Moscow's control over the volatile southern region. The worst hit areas have been Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Russia has fought two wars against Chechen separatists since 1994.

Aushev had close ties with another prominent local opposition activist, Magomed Yevloyev, who was detained and killed by local police in August 2008. The website Ingushetia.org, which Aushev owned at one time, said the deaths of the two men were linked and that anyone who dared to speak against the authorities or speak the truth, is doomed to the fate shared by Magomed and Maksharip.

Tatiana Lochkina, director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, agreed. She told Interfax that the killing "illustrates very clearly the atmosphere of impunity" in the region. She added that participating in opposition politics or defending basic freedoms in the North Caucasus has become "almost a form of suicide."

mrm/AP/Reuters/AFP
Editor: Nancy Isenson