Another Murder in Russia's Secret War

A few weeks ago, I visited the home of Maksharip Aushev -- the 43-year-old scion of a wealthy and politically influential family in Ingushetia -- on the night of his youngest son's wedding. It was a festive occasion despite the unrest in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, and hundreds of relatives and friends danced in the courtyard of the brick mansion in Nazran. But Aushev, a cousin of the former Ingush president, Ruslan Aushev, did not join in. He felt more like talking to reporters about the epidemic of violence in his republic.

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His eyes were dark and his face serious as he described the abductions of his nephew and son two years ago. Aushev, a millionaire nicknamed the "Marble Magnate," devoted his money and connections to raising protests throughout Ingushetia. He hoped to spur the regional president at the time, Murat Zyazikov, to do everything he could to save his son from the separatist insurgents. "My son was rescued from a secret jail in Chechnya," Aushev told us. "I decided I would lead the opposition and help relatives of all the other victims in the republic."

As the wedding continued into the night, young men began to shoot Kalashnikovs into the sky in celebration. Aushev continued to speak to us, blaming the federal security service and police for committing some of the abductions and murders. He complained that the local president, "no matter how much we all like him," did not have any power over the "bandits." Plus, he feared, corrupt bureaucrats had been paying the insurgents protection money, eroding any semblance of civil order in Ingushetia.

Later that night, Aushev walked out to the balcony to watch fireworks. Sad and quiet, wearing a traditional Ingush black wool top hat, he stared into the distance without smiling. "The rebel leaders charm the hearts of all young people in the republic," he said. The Kremlin couldn't possibly counter them.

Last Sunday morning, Aushev was shot dead while driving his car.

Aushev is the third person I've interviewed in the past two years gunned down in cold blood in Ingushetia or one of its neighboring provinces, Dagestan and Chechnya. All three regions are mostly Muslim, highly politically unstable, and lie near Russia's southern border with Georgia. Violence is endemic, I know too well. In July, for instance, thugs dragged Natalya Estemirova, an indomitable human rights activist, and a dear friend of mine, into a van. She was later found riddled with bullets.

Whether anyone admits it, Ingushetia is a war zone. In Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Chechnya, each a semi-autonomous area, radical separatists seek to destabilize the region. They commit kidnappings, murders, summary executions, and bombings in spite of crackdowns and arrests. They fight against Russian police and state forces, or, at least, the ones they haven't infiltrated and corrupted.

In Ingushetia, the Kremlin has responded by appointing regional governors and sending police and military reinforcements. (It's arguably worse in Chechnya, where the Kremlin sent in troops in the 1990s that only left this year.) In 2002, Moscow appointed Zyazikov, whose brutal crackdowns sometimes seemed worse than the violence he hoped to stem. Unrest escalated, and last fall, President Dmitry Medvedev named Yunus-Bek Yevkurov president of the region instead.

This appointment pleased Aushev. At the time, he had taken over the management of the opposition Web site, ingushetia.org, after the loss of his partner, Magomed Yevloyev -- who died from an "accidental" wound to the head, according to official state publications, received while being driven in a police car after his arrest.

But seeing that the Kremlin was at least attempting to stop the escalating violence between the state and the insurgents -- violence whose perpetrators seemed less and less easy to tell apart -- Aushev slowed down his opposition activity. He hoped that Yevkurov's lighter hand would help slow down the killings and abductions. Aushev also took a job as a human rights representative for the Kremlin.

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