Russia charges powerful Caucasus mayor with murder

Russian authorities Tuesday charged a powerful mayor from the volatile Dagestan region with ordering an official’s murder, in a case observers say points to the rising influence of the country’s Investigative Committee.

Said Amirov, seen as the most influential politician in Dagestan, is accused of ordering the killing of Arsen Gadzhibekov, a senior investigator in Makhachkala, the Caucasus region’s largest city.

Amirov, who served as the city’s mayor for 15 years, is “believed by the investigation to have ordered the murder” in 2011, said a statement from the Investigative Committee, the Russian equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States.

His high-profile arrest on Saturday, which involved helicopters and security service troops dispatched from Moscow, sent shock waves across Dagestan, a region struggling with an Islamist insurgency and dire poverty.

“We prepared for that operation for nearly two years,” Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin said Tuesday.

Widely viewed as untouchable, Amirov has survived numerous attempts on his life and ended up in a wheelchair because of a spinal injury. His disability and questionable tactics have earned him the nickname “Bloody Roosevelt”, after the wheelchair-bound former US president.

Investigators allege Amirov was helped in the crime by a prosecutor, a city hall official, and an investigator.

The probe, in which 11 people have been arrested, also includes attempted murders of other Dagestani officials, including a city council member and a prosecutor.

It was not clear whether Amirov, who is being held in pre-trial jail, was suspected of masterminding all of them.

“A lot of work is ahead of us in terms of proving a whole series of serious crimes committed in the republic by this organised group, practically a criminal gang,” Bastrykin said.

Gadzhibekov was a senior investigator in a district of Makhachkala when he was shot dead in December 2011 as he exited his car at midnight, a killing similar to frequent attacks against security officers that are routinely blamed on insurgents.

Amirov, a member of the ruling party United Russia, has denied any wrongdoing.

Many observers say Amirov’s arrest is a testament to the growing influence of the Investigative Committee, whose head Bastrykin answers directly to President Vladimir Putin.

The Committee is currently overseeing a number of probes against Putin’s critics.