Killing messengers in Russia

JOURNALIST MAGOMED Yevloyev annoyed the authorities in Ingushetia, a predominantly Muslim region of the Caucasus in the Russian Federation. Yevloyev operated a website, ingushetia.ru, critical of corruption among the region's bosses and their violent repression of political opponents. The authorities repeatedly tried to shut down Yevloyev's website. When they finally succeeded in silencing him, their method exposed a vein of gangsterism that runs from the periphery of Russia to the pinnacle of the Kremlin.

On Sunday, Yevloyev flew into the region's capital on the same plane as Ingushetia's governor, Murat Zyazikov, a former KGB general and collaborator of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The website gadfly reportedly had an argument with the governor during the flight. When he debarked, he was shoved into a police car and driven off. He was found soon after at the roadside, with a bullet in his head. The authorities put out a story about an "incident," a far-fetched tale of an accidental shooting after Yevloyev allegedly grabbed for the gun of one of his police captors.

The Russian human rights organization Memorial, originally founded to preserve the memory of Stalin's victims, pulled no punches. It called the assassination of Yevloyev a "cynical crime" and an "act of state terror." Reporters Without Borders, the international organization for the protection of journalists, expressed shock and called on the European Union to demand "an explanation of what really happened."

Reporters Without Borders is properly defending the public's right to know by casting light on a government's use of violence to intimidate or silence journalists. In Russia, there is a great need for such light to be cast. Since 1990, at least 291 journalists have been killed or disappeared in Russia, and only a handful of cases have resulted in convictions.

The statement from Memorial evoked memories of a not-so-distant past, when a ruler in the Kremlin was the ultimate terrorist. In this way, the Russian human rights group was warning that the murder of one website proprietor in Ingushetia may reflect the character of the regime that rules the Kremlin today.

The next American president will need to comprehend what Memorial is suggesting about the power system Putin and his old KGB cronies have created. The American leader will have to deal with the Kremlin on the basis of converging national interests, but there should be no illusions either about Putin's soul or the regime's respect for the rule of law.