Chechen rival hiding in Dubai assassinated

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Source: Telegraph.uk/Sydney Morning Herald

THE Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, is facing fresh international scrutiny after a Chechen warlord who fell out with the Kremlin was assassinated in Dubai at the weekend. The murder of Sulim Yamadayev could provoke renewed violence in Chechnya and will cause alarm outside Russia after a series of similar assassinations in Istanbul and Vienna.

Mr Yamadayev, 36, the leading rival of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president, was shot dead on Saturday in the car park of a housing development in Dubai where he had been living under a false name since December.

Experts alleged that the planning related to the attack suggested the involvement of Russia's FSB intelligence service, once headed by Mr Putin.

Coming only six months after Mr Yamadayev's brother, Ruslan, was shot dead outside the British embassy in Moscow, the murder is another sign that Chechnya's increasingly bloody gangland war is being fought beyond the Russian republic's borders.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/chechen-rival-hiding-in-dubai-assassinated-20090331-9ia7.html