Russian opposition candidate dies of gunshot wounds

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An opposition party candidate who was shot by unidentified gunmen in the entryway of his apartment building in a southern Russian republic died Saturday of his wounds, his party said. Farid Babayev, a Yabloko party candidate in Russia's Dec. 2 parliamentary elections, was shot late Wednesday in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. Doctors said he was shot four times, including at least once in the head. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky connected Babayev's death to his efforts to hold the authorities accountable for human rights abuses in Dagestan. The region is troubled by violence linked to the separatist conflict in neighboring Chechnya, a police crackdown on Islamic militancy and internal power struggles.