News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Magomed Yevloyev, journalist and owner of the opposition news site Ingushetiya.ru, was shot in the head Sunday by Russian police after being picked up at a local airport in the Russian semi-autonomous Ingushetia province. Although the police deny that the shooting was intentional, it is widely believed that Yevloyev was killed for his critical views of Russian policy and the Russian-installed governor of his home province.

Weeks before Yevloyev was reported to have said that he feared for his life, and that he was seeking refuge in Western Europe.

Over 1,000 angry mourners turned out for Yevloyev's funeral Monday, protesting what they believe to be a shamefully obvious case of political assassination on the part of the Russian government.

This would not be the first time that the Russian government has been suspected of killing its detractors. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent-turned-defector, died of thallium poisoning after a London meal with a Russian contact. Litvinenko was investigating another suspicious death at the time, that of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whom many say was poisoned by Putin's government in 2004 in response to her criticism of Putin's handling of the Chechen crisis.