Russia police seizes key suspect in Caucasus murder
Tom Miles  | Cherkessk , Russia | October 25

Reuters -  Russian police have detained a key suspect in an apparent mass-murder that has rocked the North Caucasus province of Karachayevo-Cherkessia and raised Kremlin fears of further turmoil in the troubled region.

Police said on Monday they detained local magnate Ali Kaitov, the son-in-law of the province's President Mustafa Batdyev.

Seven prominent local businessmen disappeared last week after being invited for a business meeting at Kaitov's estate.

Their fate remains unknown though evidence found at the estate has left police in little doubt they were murdered.

The incident has sparked a political crisis in the mountainous region that has alarmed the Kremlin. President Vladimir Putin rushed his powerful envoy Dmitry Kozak to southern Russia to sort out the crisis.

The province's deputy prime minister was shot dead last week in what may have been a reprisal killing, reports said.

Mainly Muslim Karachayevo-Cherkessia is normally a quiet corner of a region that includes rebel Chechnya and North Ossetia , where more than 350 people were killed in Beslan last month in a hostage raid by Chechen separatists.

Nearly 1,000 protesters gathered under a statue of the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in Cherkessk on Monday accusing Batdyev of a cover-up and being in league with his son-in-law.

They were not placated by an announcement from the prosecutor general's office that Kaitov and another suspect were detained.

"Murderer! Give us back our children!," read one banner.

Police have already detained seven suspects in the case and three police officers accused of trying to hide key evidence.

Batdyev, who said his daughter was divorcing Kaitov, earlier offered a reward of 5 million roubles ($170,000) to anyone who could help to arrest his son-in-law.

HOWLS OF ANGER

Local Deputy Interior Minister Boris Erkenov asked the crowd to go home, drawing howls of anger.

"We want to know where our children are. Give us our children. Tell us the reasons why," said Fatima Bogatyryova, whose brother was among the seven missing.

Special units of Russia 's federal security police moved into Cherkessk last week.

Karachayevo-Cherkessiya is one of 89 "autonomous" units of the Russian Federation . The units have an elected local leader whose powers are broadly those of a governor.

In the past five years authorities have worked hard to maintain a precarious balance between two main ethnic groups in the region. Tensions between the two groups nearly boiled over into violence in 1999. Putin has seized on the Beslan killings to propose sweeping political reforms that would among other things allow him to nominate currently elected regional leaders.

But sceptics say Putin's drive to concentrate power may have a downside.

At the moment Putin's reputation remains unscathed when regional leaders, even those with strong Kremlin backing, fall foul of their electorates as in Karachayevo-Cherkessia.

Once Putin's reform is introduced, the Kremlin may find it more difficult to play the unbiased arbiter in regional quarrels, analysts say.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2004 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, 09 November 2004

Russia: Protesters Ransack Government Building In Karachaevo-Cherkessia
By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Hundreds of angry protesters today forced their way into the government headquarters of Russia 's southern republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia to demand the resignation of President Mustafa Batdyev and his cabinet. Clashes with police reportedly left several wounded. The incident follows the recent disappearance and suspected murder of a regional lawmaker and six other men.

Prague , 9 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Simmering tensions in Russia 's southern republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia boiled over today when up to 5,000 demonstrators gathered on the central square of the capital Cherkessk to demand the resignation of the regional leadership.

Several hundred protesters pushed past riot police and forced their way into the government's building. The crowd smashed windows and furniture on its way to President Mustafa Batdyev's office.

RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Fatima Tlisova witnessed the incident. She sent the following report: "Almost all of offices in the White House [government building] have been ransacked. There is no information available yet about the whereabouts of President Batdyev. Almost every window in the building is broken. The surrounding area is filled with paper and broken furniture. Some government officials and ministers are watching the events from the streets adjacent to the White House."

A regional lawmaker told Russia 's ITAR-TASS news agency that Batdyev had secretly left his office though a back door before the crowd entered. The agency quoted regional officials and policemen as saying Batdyev's refusal to meet with the protesters is probably what prompted the crowd to force its way into the building.

Reports say at least six people were wounded in clashes with riot police.

Law-enforcement agencies eventually succeeded in repelling most of the intruders, but a number of them refused to leave the building until Batdyev meets with them.

Today's turmoil follows the disappearance and suspected killing of regional lawmaker Rasul Bogatyrev and six business associates on 11 October.

Meanwhile, as Tlisova reported, the demonstration continued outside the government headquarters. "A rally of several thousand people continues on the square," she said. "The protesters' demands include the immediate resignation of the government, the president, and the heads of law-enforcement agencies, the military, and security services."

The local parliament was due to hold an emergency meeting later today.

Authorities say they don't plan to issue a state of emergency. They have notified Dmitrii Kozak, Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District , which includes the North Caucasus . It is unclear whether Kozak, who has his headquarters in Rostov-na-Donu, will go to Cherkessk.

Today's turmoil follows the disappearance and suspected killing of regional lawmaker Rasul Bogatyrev and six business associates. The seven men disappeared on 11 October.

Prosecutors yesterday said police had discovered seven dismembered and charred bodies in a mineshaft. They were believed to be the missing men.

But Russian Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolai Shepel today said the bodies have not yet been identified. "The bodies, the remains we've found, are heavily burned," he said. "Therefore we had to order a forensic investigation and a genetic and molecular identification process to identify them."

Regional and federal authorities at first attempted to hush up the disappearances. But faced with growing criticism, they eventually made some 15 arrests in the case, including many policemen. Among the detainees is Batdyev's son-in-law and regional cement magnate Ali Kaitov.

Prosecutors believe the seven men disappeared after meeting Kaitov at his home. They suspect the case is connected with a dispute over ownership of a local paint and varnish factory.

Kaitov denies any involvement in the affair. Yet, Russian law-enforcement agencies say they were able to locate the seven bodies yesterday only after information provided by two of Kaitov's bodyguards arrested over the weekend in St. Petersburg .

Posted on Tue, Nov. 09, 2004

Protesters Ransack Russian Gov't Offices

SERGEI VENYAVSKY

Associated Press

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia - Hundreds of protesters ransacked and occupied the regional administration building in a southern Russian province Tuesday, demanding the resignation of the region's president, whose former son-in-law has been linked to a multiple slaying.

Hundreds of armed riot police were standing guard outside the office of regional President Mustafa Batdyev, a duty officer for the Karachayevo-Cherkessiya regional interior ministry said.

The protesters got into the building by battering down the doors with metal barriers. Television footage showed men and women inside breaking windows, pulling down curtains and window frames and throwing papers and potted plants out the windows as uniformed police fled.

Thirty people were injured in the melee, including six law-enforcement officers who were hospitalized, one in serious condition, said the duty officer, who declined to give his name. One woman was seen wielding a police truncheon against an interior ministry soldier.

Nearly 1,000 people, most elderly women, were occupying the building late Tuesday, the duty officer said.

NTV television said Batdyev fled through a back door. But regional police said no officials were in the building at the time of the protest.

The building's seizure followed weeks of protests over the disappearance of seven shareholders in a chemical company. The men's charred remains were discovered in a common grave Monday, and prosecutors believe they were killed on Oct. 10 when they were summoned to a meeting at a cottage belonging to Ali Kaitov, Batdyev's former son-in-law.

Kaitov has been detained on abduction and murder charges. He says he is innocent.

Batdyev has sought to distance himself from Kaitov and had his daughter divorce him as the crisis unfolded. But the provincial leader refused to step down.

The Karachayevo-Cherkessiya region has been plagued by frequent contract murders and other violence, some linked to rivalry between local criminal clans and some spilling over from warring Chechnya , to the east.

Wed Nov 10,12:32 PM ET

Relative of seven murdered businessmen wait in the office of Mustafa Batduyev, the leader of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia region, demanding his resignation, in the region's capital Cherkessk, November 10, 2004 . The small, mainly Muslim Karachayevo-Cherkessia region has been hit by protests since the disappearance last month of seven businessmen, in which Batduyev's son-in-law is a prime suspect. The discovery of their bodies in a mineshaft sparked fresh riots on Tuesday when protesters stormed into government headquarters in the regional capital Cherkessk and demanded Batdyyev quit. REUTERS/Eduard Kornienko

Russian Information Agency NOVOSTI

2004-11-10 10:23     * RUSSIA * CHERKESSK * RIOT * INVESTIGATION *

CRIMINAL CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST RIOT IN CHERKESSK

MOSCOW , November 10 - RIA Novosti. A source in the Cherkessk city prosecutor's office told RIA Novosti that "the city prosecutor's office has brought criminal charges for mass riot" against civil turmoil in the city.

Previously a source in the regional Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti over the telephone that 40 people were staying in the regional government house and demanding resignation of the president of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The source said they had broken into president Mustafa Batdyev's personal quarters.

According to the press service of the Russian Interior Ministry's Southern Federal District Directorate, on the previous day several thousand people gathered near the regional government house to demand punishment for those who had killed seven young men.

The situation went out of control as the protesters who had insisted on a meeting with Batdyev learned that the president was not in the building. On hearing that, they smashed the doors, broke in, and seized the ground floor of the building.

As the police attempted to stop them, 20 policemen were injured. More police and special riot task forces were summoned to guard the building, but they did not use weapons. After 3 p.m. Moscow time the police managed to get most people out.

The corpses of the seven residents of Karachaevo-Cherkessia - regional lawmaker Rasul Bogatyryov and six of his friends, - who had vanished in the early hours of October 11, were found the day before in an abandoned mine near the village of Kumysh, Karachaevsk district.

Their relatives said they had headed for the out-of-town house of Ali Kaitov, chairman of OAO Kavkaz-Tsement and son-in-law of the president of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Witnesses spoke of rifle bursts heard near the house later for about half an hour.

Kaitov was arrested on October 25 under a ruling of the Board of the High Court of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. Other suspects were also detained.

Nov 12 2004 2:36PM

Putin envoy hopes to avoid new riots like those in Cherkessk

ROSTOV-ON-DON. Nov 12 (Interfax) - Presidential envoy to the southern federal district Dmitry Kozak hopes that there will be no more riots like the ones that took place in Cherkessk earlier this week.

"As for a repeat, I really hope that the disorder of the past few days ago won't occur again," he told reporters in Rostov-on-Don on Friday.

"I believe that people realized that no political, economic or social problems can be resolved that way, they can only get worse," Kozak said.

"If attempts are made to organize more mass disorders, corresponding forces and means, primarily law enforcement, will be alerted to prevent such actions," he said.