As if the news from Mexico wasn’t bad enough, on Wednesday the body of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was found in Ingushetia with bullet wounds to the head and chest. Estemirova had spent the last decade researching and reporting on kidnapping, torture, killings and other rights abuses occurring in Chechnya. Witnesses claim that she yelled out that she was being kidnapped when men seized her from her home in Grozny the morning of her murder. Her killing comes at a time when Russia is trying to pretend that all is well in the North Caucasus despite reports to the contrary by human rights monitoring groups. Across the world governments, rights organisations and ordinary citizens have condemned the brutal slaying, saying it is just a tragic reminder of how a climate of impunity pervades the Russian Federation and those who speak out against it pay with their lives.
