Briefs

– Nine People Charged in Politkovskaya Murder Case

Reuters reported on October 17 that prosecutors have charged nine people, including a Russian security service lieutenant-colonel, with involvement in the October 2006 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the award-winning journalist and Kremlin critic.

Vyacheslav Smirnov, an official of the Prosecutor General’s Office, told a Moscow city court that “nine people have been charged in the (Politkovskaya) criminal case,” Interfax reported. Earlier, Russian news agencies quoted a source close to the investigation as saying that Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov of the Federal Security Service (FSB) had been charged with abuse of office. Ryaguzov allegedly provided details of Politkvoskaya’s address to another suspect, who in turn gave them to the killer, Russian agencies quoted investigators as saying.

– Chechen Finds and Turns in Around 250 Pounds of Explosives

A resident of Chechnya turned over roughly 120 kilograms of explosives he had discovered in three canvas sacks hidden under the grass just meters from the road running from Grozny to Shatoi in Chechnya’s Urus-Martan district on October 16. “A 32-year-old resident voluntarily surrendered – for a monetary compensation – explosive substances he found at a garbage dump,” Chechen Interior Ministry spokesman Magomed Deniev told Itar-Tass.

– Nine People in Accidents in Chechnya

A woman was killed in Chechnya’s Itum-Kalinsky district on October 13 when she stepped on a mine. The Regnum news agency quoted a source in Chechnya’s law-enforcement bodies as saying that the incident took place near the village of Mulkoi when a 30-year-old woman went to the local cemetery to bring gifts to the graves of relatives in connection with the Id al-Fitr holiday. Meanwhile, eight people, including two children, were killed on October 15 when two cars collided on the Rostov-Baku federal highway near the village of Bolgotoi in Chechnya’s Shali district, Interfax reported.