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Russia Names Suspect In 2004 Klebnikov Killing Detained In Ukraine


Three Chechen men, Magomed Dukuzov's brother Kazbek (left), Musa Vakhayev (right), and Fail Sadretdinov (behind), were acquitted of the killing in May 2006.
Three Chechen men, Magomed Dukuzov's brother Kazbek (left), Musa Vakhayev (right), and Fail Sadretdinov (behind), were acquitted of the killing in May 2006.

Russia has named a man detained at its request in Ukraine under the accusation of involvement in the assassination of an American journalist in Moscow 13 years ago.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said on November 18 that it had detained a Russian citizen allegedly involved in Klebnikov's killing, but it did not name him.

Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk on November 20 identified the man as Magomed Dukuzov, from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya.

Volk said Dukuzov, born in 1978, was detained in Kyiv and was suspected of "involvement in perpetrating several contract killings, including the killing of the editor in chief of the Russian edition of Forbes, Paul Klebnikov."

Klebnikov, who had written at length about corruption in Russia, was shot dead outside his office building in Moscow in July 2004 shortly after being appointed the first editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.

Russian authorities said Klebnikov's killing was a response to his investigative work, which included books on Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev.

Prosecutors later accused Nukhayev of masterminding the crime.

Magomed Dukuzov was one of the initial suspects in the case, but disappeared before he could be apprehended and was put on the international wanted list in 2004.

Three Chechen men, including Magomed Dukuzov's brother Kazbek, were arrested and tried for carrying out the hit. All three men were acquitted in May 2006. A retrial the following year was suspended as Dukuzov could not be found.

With reporting by AP, TASS, and Interfax
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