Monday, June 13, 2011
DANIEL McLAUGHLIN
THE AUTHORITIES in Russia are on alert for a violent far-right reaction to the murder of Yuri Budanov, a notorious former colonel who became an icon for extreme nationalists.
Mr Budanov was shot four times in the head in central Moscow on Friday, in an attack that far-right groups immediately blamed on Chechens.
The police claimed the killing could be a "provocation” intended to ignite smouldering ethnic tension in Russia.
Mr Budanov was convicted in 2003 of having brutally murdered teenager Elza Kungayeva during a tour of duty in war-torn Chechnya, after being cleared of the killing in a previous trial.
He was granted early release from jail in 2009 due to good behaviour, to the fury of Ms Kungayeva’s family and many others, who saw him as the embodiment of the brutal methods used by the Kremlin to crush Chechnya’s rebels.
He was hailed ...