Russia’s most wanted militant has claimed last month’s shooting in Moscow of a top colonel who was convicted of strangling to death an 18-year-old girl in war-torn Chechnya. A man who identified himself as guerrilla leader Doku Umarov said in a video message posted on the rebel Kavkazcenter website on Saturday evening that he was responsible for colonel Yuri Budanov’s death.
“I am addressing you today about a joyous occasion: yesterday, on June 10, one of the sadists, the reprobate, the killer Budanov is dead,” said Umarov. “The same fate, the same revenge awaits the others,” he added, “let these celebrations happen more often for Muslims.”
He was shown sitting next to a heavily bearded man identified as commander of the Riyadus-Salikhiyn Brigade — the same group that organised the 2004 school hostage crisis in Beslan that killed 334 people.