Cherkessk/Agency Caucasus – Murat Akbayev, 40, a member of the parliament of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was killed in an assassination.
Akbayev came under an attack while he was driving his Infinity car on May 31 in Cherkessk, the capital city of Kabardino-Balkaria. He was fired at with a 5.45mm Kalashnikov gun from a bus stop just outside the Orbita entertainment building. The police found more than 15 shells, a hut and a mask thought to belong to the attackers.
Akbayev was elected member of the parliament in April 2004 after he ran in the elections as a member of the True Patriots Party of Russia. Akbayev was not regularly attending the sessions in the parliament, because he devoted much of his time to conducting his commercial business, according to his friends. He was known less as member of the parliament than a leading figure of the underground world.
The cause for the assassination remains unknown for the moment; however, there is suspected to be a link between the assassination of Akbayev and the killing of seven people in 2004, for which the police held responsible Ali Kaitov, former son-in-law of President Mustafa Batdiyev of Karachai-Cherkessia, because Akbayev was a close friend of Kaitov.
In 2004, seven Karachai people were killed due to a business disagreement while they were in the summer house of Kaitov. Some people, therefore, tend to think that the relatives of those seven Karachai people might have wanted to take their revenge.
Meanwhile, Akbayave’s younger brother Azamat is a close safeguard of Kaitov.
Akbayev is the fourth of those members of the parliament who were killed over the last seven years in Karachai-Cherkessia. On September 11, 2001, Anzaur Suyunchev, nicknamed "godfather;" on June 4, 2002, Rasul Atabiyev, and on October 10, 2004 Rasul Bogatirev were killed along with his six friends in the summer house of Kaitov. RE/ÖZ/FT
