Ingushetia President Escapes Assassination Attempt

06/04/2004| IslamWeb

The pro-Kremlin president of a Russian region bordering Chechnya has survived an apparent assassination attempt. Ingushetia's President, Murat Zyazikov, was slightly injured when a car packed with explosives rammed into his motorcade on Monday morning. A presidential spokesman said it appeared to have been a suicide attack. Correspondents say Zyazikov, who served in the intelligence services in Chechnya and Ingushetia, is seen as a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack which injured several bodyguards and damaged nearby buildings. But Zyazikov told Russian Itar-Tass news agency the blast was the work of "forces who wanted to turn Ingushetia into a battleground". "The separatists and extremists, whose leaders are known, stand to gain above all from the destabilisation processes," he said, in an apparent reference to Chechen fighters. Moscow says it has pacified Chechnya four years into its second campaign, but fighting continues in the republic. Most of the attacks take place inside Chechnya, but Russian serviceman have also been targeted in Ingushetia. Ingushetia hosts thousands of Chechen refugees who fled the conflict. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov poses for photographers in Nazran, in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia, in this April 29, 2002 file photo. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)