World Chess Federation President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
Suspects Confess to Editor's Death
MOSCOW (AP) — Two former aides to a high-profile politician in the Russian republic of Kalmykia have confessed to killing an opposition journalist, a news agency reported Tuesday.
Larisa Yudina, editor of Soviet Kalmykia Today, was found dead June 8 in the republic's capital, Elista. Her attackers had stabbed her repeatedly and fractured her skull.
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World Chess Federation President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov |
Ilyumzhinov announced Sunday he would run for the Russian presidency in 2000.
Yudina, who was also regional co-chairwoman of the Yabloko liberal opposition party, frequently criticized Ilyumzhinov, and recently accused him of extorting money from local business people under the guise of voluntary donations.
On Tuesday, another newspaper employee, Semyon Ageyev, was attacked in Elista while distributing the daily's latest issue, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
The driver of the bus in which Ageyev was riding assaulted him and threw him from the vehicle, ITAR-Tass said. It gave no other details.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanded Monday that Yudina's killing be investigated "to the utmost level," adding that local officials investigating the case "cannot be fully trusted."
Liberal Russian media have accused Ilyumzhinov of running the impoverished region like a medieval baron, flaunting his fleet of luxury imported cars and other wealth while crushing dissent and ignoring the republic's social troubles.