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Violence erupts in Chechnya after elections

By Lecha Sadayev

CHECHNYA - Despite some politician’s predictions, the situation in Chechnya escalated after the Moscow-staged parliamentary elections. According to the Chechen Interior Ministry, the number of offenses sharply increased.

According to a source in the law-enforcement agencies, a bullet-riddled body of a man was found on December 1 in the southern outskirts of Argun. However, it seems he might have actually lived in the nearby town of Shali.

A day before the body of a local woman was found in the settlement of Avtury in the Shalinsky district; local police reported that she had been stabbed.

During the past five days two administrative heads were killed in Chechnya. On the night of November 28, Sultan Delimkhanov, administrative head of the Pamyatoy village in the Shatoysky district, was shot with an automatic. Dmitriy Arnautov, a soldier at the Shatoysky military command post, was arrested on suspicion of murder; criminal procedures were immediately started.

And on the night of November 30, unknown masked men killed Ibragim Umpashayev, administrative head of the Avtury village, along with his adult son Isa. Both were shot with an automatic in the courtyard of their house. So far the killers have not been identified.

Translated by Mindaugas Kojelis.

(MK/E,T)