The
New York Times is reporting that a former Russian tank battalion commander was murdered in cold blood outside a notary's office. (A notary public in Russia has considerably more authority than in the U.S., similar to an attorney.)
The commander, Yuri Budanov, had stepped outside the notary's office for a cigarette, and was attacked by a gunman firing a suppressed, semi-automatic pistol. The assassin felled Budanov with a shot to the head, then fired three more times into his skull, killing him instantly.
The gunman then escaped in a light-colored Mitsubishi Lancer. The Mitsubishi was found later, abandoned and set ablaze, with the suppressed pistol laying on the seat.
Budanov was a Russian Army tank battalion commander (a colonel) during Russia's two wars against the Islamist rebel separatist forces in Chechnya. In March, 2000, Budanov's regiment, the 160th Tank Regiment, was deployed to Chechnya. During operations there, Budanov apparently either captured or kidnapped (depending upon one's point of view) an 18-year-old Chechen woman, Elza Kungayeva, and held her captive in his quarters. Budanov never denied holding Kungayeva and testified that she was a sniper and had killed Russian soldiers. He said he was interrogating her, and choked her to death in a drunken rage. He then ordered his men to bury her body in a nearby forest.
Budanov was one of the few Russian soldiers ever tried for illegally harming civilians during the Chechen wars. Harsh interrogation and summary execution (torture and murder, if you are a Chechnyan) were commonplace, but few Russian soldierss were ever charged or tried. Budanov was tried in 2003 for Kungayeva's murder, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and stripped of his rank, awards and decorations. He served six years and was released in 2009, four years before the end of his sentence. This caused street protests and demonstrations in Chechnya, where Budanov had become a symbol of Russian mistreatment of Chechen prisoners.
Budanov became a hero to Russian Nationalists, who are adamant that Russia not give up another square centimeter of Russia soil to
anybody. Police were on "heightened alert" after his death, anticipating street protests and possible civil unrest from the Russian Nationalist organizations.