Watchdog

Russian and international rights organizations have called for justice on the fifth anniversary of the killing of slain Chechen rights activist and journalist Natalya Estemirova.

Amnesty International is holding an event in Moscow to commemorate her death and is collecting signatures for a petition demanding officials thoroughly investigate her death.

Estemirova was abducted in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on July 15, 2009. Her body was found the next day in Ingushetia.

The Memorial Human Rights Center, where Estemirova worked, said an investigation by authorities showed the possible involvement of law enforcement officers in the crime.

No one has been arrested for her murder.

David Kramer, president of the rights watchdog Freedom House, said Russian officials had "dragged their feet and pushed forward a version of events [of Estemirova's death] that is obviously fabricated, shielding her killers from justice, effectively validating their actions."

A Moscow-based think tank that monitors xenophobia and extremism says 13 people were killed and 61 injured in ethnically motivated attacks in Russia in the first six months of 2014.

According to the latest report presented by the Sova Center for Information and Analysis on July 9, the deadliest attacks in the last six months occurred in Moscow, where five people were killed and 13 injured by suspected ultranationalists.

Two people were killed and seven injured in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.

The report did not include ethnically or racially motivated attacks in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region or in Crimea, the Ukrainian region that was annexed by Moscow in March.

The main victims of the attacks were migrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as citizens from African states and Japan.

With reporting by Interfax