Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Government News

Anti-Government Webmaster Shot Dead By Russian Police 513

J.Tatar and a number of other readers alert us to the shooting death of an anti-government webmaster while in police custody in Ingushetiya, a volatile province in southern Russia. Police took Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev off a plane that had just landed in Ingushetiya. "Yevloyev ... was a prominent opponent of the pro-Kremlin president of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov [a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin]. Prosecutors have opened a preliminary manslaughter investigation after Yevloyev was shot in a police car in Narzan, the capital of volatile Ingushetia, a mostly Muslim region that borders Chechnya, Russian media reported. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office, Vladimir Markin, said 'an incident' took place after Yevloyev was taken into a police car 'resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital,' Interfax reported."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Anti-Government Webmaster Shot Dead By Russian Police

Comments Filter:
  • He was shot, and shot by police [for an unspecified reason].

    But this still doesn't automatically mean he was "eliminated" for his views on the Russian government.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 01, 2008 @12:51AM (#24826633)
      -1 naive
      • by fictionpuss ( 1136565 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:13AM (#24826807)

        -1 naive

        While it looks suspicious, and certainly goes along with the current wave of anti-Russian sentiment, I have to agree with the GP - let's wait for more information instead of jumping to conclusions.

        While a Slashdot thread has a minor effect on overall public opinion, every single increment brings us closer to "accepting the inevitability" of an actual conflict with Russia - something which Bush and Putin would both seem to benefit from wrt power consolidation.

        We're geeks, we have brains if we choose to use them - we can do better [metagovernment.org]. And yes, I am new here.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by BrokenHalo ( 565198 )
          every single increment brings us closer to "accepting the inevitability" of an actual conflict with Russia - something which Bush and Putin would both seem to benefit from wrt power consolidation.

          The practice of setting up straw dolls as a focus for enmity is hardly confined to recent history.

          But many of those of us who lived through the Cold War, in the expectation that someone like Ronnie Ray-Gun was highly likely to push the button and blow us all to hell might not see this as such an increment.

          Russi
          • by MrNaz ( 730548 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @02:06AM (#24827123) Homepage

            Russia is not the same nation as it was in the '70s and '80s. It is nearly broke, and has a disorganised and ill-equipped military.

            As opposed to the US which has a highly organized military that is heavily dependent on the drip-feeding of massive quantities of tax dollars that are fast becoming scarcer and scarcer, fed to it by a government that is now so deep in debt that it it unlikely that anyone alive today will ever see it balance.

            If you ask me, Russia has a greater capacity to wage war than the US currently, after when you factor in the miserable state of US government financial conditions and the world at large's hostility towards US military adventurism.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by andot ( 714926 )
          There is no wave anti-Russian sentiment. Truth is that Russia is most fascist country on earth right now. Attacking his neighbours, killing nonrussians in their major citys and so on. Russian politics and rethorics is identical to nazi germany in 1930. Georgia and South Ossetia conflict is exactly like German occupation of Czechoslovakia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_occupation_of_Czechoslovakia [wikipedia.org]. Remember what happend last time!
          • by KGIII ( 973947 ) <uninvolved@outlook.com> on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:50AM (#24827057) Journal

            Godwined in the first three sets of page down comments. I'm not sure if that's a record but it's damned close.

            Err... Well played my good sir?

            • by andot ( 714926 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:59AM (#24827099)
              Godwin or not, but this is truth. Of course i should have written "Russian politics and rethorics is identical to germany in 1930" to avoid the issue. But that what happening in russia and if world will react like last time then we are heading to WWW III.
              • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                If it's 'the truth', let's see some strategic forecasts. Let's see logistical analysis, nuclear force readiness reports, military intelligence.

                Let's see some Russian geopolitical analysis- well reasoned, well thought-out analysis of Russian leaders, their past behavior, and their likely future behavior with probability analysis and explanations.

                Let's see strategic forecasts for Russia's major neighbors; force readiness reports from China and the major EU nations; geopolitical analysis of the Chinese, the EU

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by zoogies ( 879569 )

            As our great leaders have said to Russia time and time again in recent weeks, "The time for nations invading nations and deposing their leaders through force, are over."

            (for countries not named U.S.A, anyway...we're not dangerous, we're just...helping. >_>)

          • by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @02:53AM (#24827417) Homepage
            Yeah, remember when Czechoslovakia attacked its separatist region which German troops were charged with protecting under a UN-mandated peacekeeping operation?
          • by quadrox ( 1174915 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @06:00AM (#24828559)
            Seriosuly - compare what you are saying to what the US is doing. invading countries, guantanamo bay, anti-terrorism laws. etc. The US is not different, russia is simply reacting in order to stay in the game and not be controlled by the US.

            Maybe what Russia is doing is wrong on some ethical level. But it sure as hell is no worse than the US, so get of your high horse.
        • no. it IS naive (Score:3, Interesting)

          by unity100 ( 970058 )
          this is not a single or rare occurrence. in the last 5 years all kinds of opponents all around russian federation have been killed 'accidentally' in numerous 'incidents'.

          anyone who would think that this was a real accident is thoroughly naive or stupid.
    • by LurkerXXX ( 667952 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @12:56AM (#24826679)

      Yeah, because police shoot people in the head (who they already have in their custody and in a police car) all the time. It just happens... right. I'm sure it's not just because he was stirring up unrest against the Russian government.

      Maybe an alien had taken him over and they were killing it. Got any other alternate theories?

    • by n dot l ( 1099033 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:03AM (#24826735)

      [for an unspecified reason]

      A BBC article [bbc.co.uk] on this says:

      Reports quoting local police said Yevloyev had tried to seize a policeman's gun when he was being led to a vehicle. A shot was fired and Yevloyev was injured in the head.

    • by meist3r ( 1061628 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:04AM (#24826739)
      Ingushetia website owner killed by police: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/01/russia1 [guardian.co.uk]

      "As they drove he was shot in the temple ... They threw him out of the car near the hospital," Kaloi Akhilgov told Reuters by telephone. "He was discovered there and they quickly put him on the operating table, which is where he died."

      Sounds pretty conclusive to me. The last time I shot someone in the head "accidentally" with my gun, I also threw him out of the car because I was "careless". Wake up.
      • Kaloi Akhilgov is an attorney BTW. I can't remember a time when I heard one tell the truth so soon after something happened.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Google turned up this article mentioning Kaloi Akhilgov from three weeks ago. Magomed Yevloyev is mentioned in that repeated calls to him went unanswered. Apparently the editor of ingushetia.ru [themoscowtimes.com] fled the country in the middle of July.

          If anyone cares to read the article they'll find these paragraphs near the end:

          "Violence against journalists in Ingushetia is a well-known and well-documented fact," Guseinova said, citing the November abduction and assault of Ren-TV journalists by uniformed men.

          Malsagova coul

      • "shooting injury to the head"...to me...that's an execution.
        u know...like that infamous video clip and photo from the vietnam war?

        man....how far humanity has and hasn't come.

      • by arth1 ( 260657 )

        There's no corroborating accounts of him having been "thrown out of a car".
        And, besides, how does the lawyer know he was thrown out of the car, if he was "discovered there"? Surely, if there were witnesses to him being thrown out of the car, they would have called for help, stayed with him, or even rubbernecked from a safe distance, making the "discovery" unnecessary?

        At this point, I can't really discount the police story of him going for one of the policemen's gun and another policeman shooting him, follo

      • by MooUK ( 905450 )

        The shooting could have a legitimate reason - but I can't see any good reason for dumping the body in the street. Any independent support of that fact?

    • by PC and Sony Fanboy ( 1248258 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:05AM (#24826749) Journal
      He was a terrorist! ... oh wait, in russia. not in the usa. *siiigh* ... My theories never work out.
    • by tetromino ( 807969 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:06AM (#24826757)

      You are correct. He was eliminated for his views on the Ingushetian provincial government - specifically, for his views on Ingushetia's governor Zyazikov, whose policies have brought the province to the brink (some say over the brink) of civil war. It is a great mystery just why the Kremlin continues to support Ingushetia's current administration.

      Sometimes, the federal government has to give its support to a competent, but thuggish, local administration in order to restore order and peace (see Chechnya for an example). But if the thuggish local administration is failing to do its job, why the hell is it still being propped up?

    • by LurkerXXX ( 667952 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:12AM (#24826803)

      Maybe the police officer's was Dick Cheney's evil Russian twin. You know, accidently shooting folks in the head ;)

      Ahh, what am I thinking, Dick Cheney IS the evil twin.

    • look to the past (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Quila ( 201335 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:23AM (#24826885)

      If you heard a report back in 2000 that Saddam Hussein had had yet another person killed, you'd think it was just par for the course. If rumor was that Bush allowed another fat-cat single-source contracting deal with his friends, you'd think it was probably true. Why? Because it falls in with that person's modus operandi.

      Putin's Russia has been a very dangerous place for anyone who has opposed him, or even tried to investigate what was happening under him. Many are dead, exiled or in jail. So while I won't automatically put this in the "It's true" category, it does belong firmly in "Most likely true."

    • But this still doesn't automatically mean he was "eliminated" for his views on the Russian government.

      How dare you not believe every rambling, kooky conspiracy theory on the net! Remember: any time something bad happens to a loudmouth, it's because Bush, Putin or Butin* ordered it!

      * Butin = Bush & Putin's secret love child. Weekly World News had pictures of him. He's dating Bat Boy.

    • But I've got this Jump To Conclusions mat that's so much fun to play!

      Conspiracy or not, the guy probably wouldn't be dead if the cops hadn't arrested him. That's a big blunder for the already tense environment over there. It doesn't really matter who shot, what matters is WHERE the guy was when he was shot. If you're in police custody and they fail to ensure your safety, that's really bad!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by MrMr ( 219533 )
      How is that better?
      In Soviet Russia police may also shoot you in the head for no particular reason?
  • "Along the way, a shot was involuntarily fired from a policeman's gun and the bullet hit Yevloyev's head"

    And wouldn't you know it, all his friends and family accidentally car bombed themselves.

  • Minneapolis.

  • by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @12:57AM (#24826683) Homepage Journal

    Realize that Magomed was shot in the temple, that's a guaranteed way to kill someone. It was no accident, it was premeditated.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      the temple houses the reason center of the brain, the guaranteed kill is actually behind the ear, where the primitive autonomic systems rest.

  • by Zerth ( 26112 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @12:59AM (#24826695)

    The officer just tended to emphasize things by pointing his pistol and the roads around there are very bumpy. Complete and unfortunant chance. Could happen to anybody.

    Haven't you ever seen Pulp Fiction?

  • by mvdwege ( 243851 ) <mvdwege@mail.com> on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:08AM (#24826777) Homepage Journal

    Why is it relevant that Ingushetiya is mostly Muslim? What does that irrelevant factoid have to do with this news?

    The only thing that I fear it is relevant for, is for the inevitable Kremlin propaganda offensive to paint themselves as defenders against the Muslim barbarians. A tactic that worked very well to get the Chechnyan separatists out of the Western news and gave Russia a free hand to do whatever they wanted in Chechnya.

    Obligatory disclaimer: the Chechnyan separatists were bastards. That does not wipe out the strong suspicion that Russia played on fears of Muslim terrorism in the West for propaganda purposes.

    Mart

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jez9999 ( 618189 )

      Why is it relevant that Ingushetiya is mostly Muslim? What does that irrelevant factoid have to do with this news?

      AFAICT, the Kremlin has even less respect for Muslims than they do for the rest of the population. They committed massacres in Chechnya. Would they have done the same thing (on the same scale) to White Russian Christians? I doubt it. Hell, they're actually supporting the independence of two of the next-door provinces.

  • some how i just know this is global warmings fault. monsanto probably had a hand in it as well.
  • backtotheussr
  • by caywen ( 942955 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:24AM (#24826889)
    Oh wait, never mind.
  • by Locutus ( 9039 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:33AM (#24826969)

    There was Putin and his public dislike of all things US. The radioactive poisoning. Some FBI link to a SPAMMER inside of Russia but Putins government would not let US prosecutors go after them. The election where Putin creates a seat so he's still on top. More anti-US rhetoric. And more recently the Georgia incident where Putin is the one in the press on the first and second day. After that it is the acting President but it was pretty obvious Putin is da man.

    Now a hole in the head of a webmaster while INSIDE a Police car. It all sounds like the old USSR and KGB era tactics to me. Well, it was good for some while it lasted. IMO

    LoB

    • There was Putin and his public dislike of all things US. The radioactive poisoning. Some FBI link to a SPAMMER inside of Russia but Putins government would not let US prosecutors go after them. The election where Putin creates a seat so he's still on top. More anti-US rhetoric. And more recently the Georgia incident where Putin is the one in the press on the first and second day. After that it is the acting President but it was pretty obvious Putin is da man.

      Now a hole in the head of a webmaster while INSIDE a Police car. It all sounds like the old USSR and KGB era tactics to me. Well, it was good for some while it lasted. IMO

      LoB

      This kind of puts the damper on the whole "won the cold war for us" rhetoric..

      now i guess it's "sprayed air-freshener over the diaper pail that was communist russia and claimed to his wife he had emptied it"

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kaos07 ( 1113443 )

      While a lot of Russia's actions are to be condemned it's naive and one-sided to say that we have a new "Cold War" upon us due to the aggressive nature of Putin and Medvedev. The Cold War wasn't simply the USSR vs. the USA it was them and all their allies against each other mainly in geographical locations slightly removed from both superpowers. The new stuff that's going on is all within Russia's sphere of influence and the flipside of it is saying that the "Cold War is back!" if the US started intervening

  • by houbou ( 1097327 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @01:38AM (#24826999) Journal

    Well, we should count ourselves lucky that we have free speech. Obviously, the poor bastard who was running that Anti-Kremlin website, is now going to be a martyr to the cause of free speech, being a casualty of it.

    I feel for those russians who know there is a better way of life, but are stuck in this transitory stage where many of them are forced to co-exist with the "old school" russian way of thinking.

    Anyways, it is always sad to read news such as this.

    • Correction: an anti-Magas [wikipedia.org] website. not anti-Kremlin website.

    • should count ourselves lucky that we have free speech

      just because people aren't executed so obviously for speaking out doesn't mean we have free speech in the US.

      The other way of looking at it is capitalism has produced "smarter" information management.

      Nothing more perfect than pointing at some authoritarian state's propaganda, and claiming privately owned media is any less bias.

      Nothing more perfect than claiming these things are secure because they're encoded in our constitution, then finding and abusing http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=949457 [slashdot.org]

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The Bear does things like shut off natural gas to Poland in the middle of the winter.

    The Bear does things like shoot you (it's easier than shipping you to North Central Asia to build log bridges).

    The Bear does things like running anti-aircraft artillery exercises during which they state that the target areas were the spaces between the aircraft flying the Berlin Airlift.

    The Bear (or whatever local bumpkin minion) doesn't always think before acting (or thinks initiative might be rewarded). That's how KAL 007

  • those who say invading georgia is like the usa invading iraq?

    where are those who say russia's invasion of georgia is the usa's fault?

    it's all morally relative, right? we have to let russia do anything they damn well please, because the usa did something bad once, right?

    i have a crazy idea: why can't we condemn them both?

    why can't you condemn the usa, AND condemn russia?

    given that, with all of the vitriol some of you found to fling at washington dc in recent years, why can't you fling some of that now at moscow?

    or do crimes of war only stick to the west?

    are you motivated by principles? or some weird geopolitical vendetta? (and therefore, part of the problem)

    if you are motivation by principles, you must condemn russia now as hard as you condemn the usa

    fight imperialism, wherever the fount

    • You want an opinion on Russian actions in Georgia?

      1. Sending troops to protect the Ossetians from the Georgian blitzkrieg: good, necessary and just.

      2. Failing to prevent the angry South Ossetian hordes from burning and looting Georgian villages once the Georgian army was kicked out of the neighborhood: very, very bad. Many Russian officers did try to stop the looting, but they should have been prepared for it from the very beginning.

      3. Keeping the war limited mostly to military infrastructure and the northe

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Xiroth ( 917768 )

      why can't you condemn the usa, AND condemn russia?

      Uh, duh? What do you expect us to say, 'We wouldn't stand for a journalist to be murdered by the USA government, but this is Russia - it's just part of their culture'?

      No. Killing journalists for reporting on your corruption is IMO worse than anything that has happened in the USA under Bush. Yes, even worse than Guantanamo, although they're pretty close in terms of nastiness. The press-slaying tops simply because even though it's only one person compared to h

  • This is strange (Score:5, Interesting)

    by archeopterix ( 594938 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @03:40AM (#24827683) Journal
    Even during the cold war the communist governments werent this open about killing their opponents. A possible explanation for this mode of operation is that someone wanted to send a clear message along the lines of "we do what we want - fear us". Or maybe it's just a tragic occurence Hanlon's razor (they police might actually be that stupid).
  • by PietjeJantje ( 917584 ) on Monday September 01, 2008 @03:43AM (#24827707)
    To all the people who support the thesis:

    We don't know what happened, as nerds we should wait for more information instead of jumping to conclusions.

    You're plain wrong, and just silly. The exact design of this assassination is:

    You know exactly what happened, and that we can get away with it. Fear that.

I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

Working...