ROSTOV-ON-DON — Police say a journalist has been killed in Russia's Caucasus, a region plagued by a confrontation between Islamic insurgents and federal forces.
Provincial police said Thursday that Kazbek Gekkiyev, a television reporter with the state-run VGTRK media holding, was gunned down late Wednesday in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkariya province.
Police spokesman Vladislav Romanov said the killing could be related to Gekkiyev’s job.
But VGTRK said his reports did not cover underground Islamic militancy, while several other reporters have received death threats from Islamists.
A brazen 2005 raid of Islamists on Nalchik left 130 people dead, and Kabardino-Balkariya still experiences occasional small clashes.
Police also say deputy transportation minister Vladislav Dyadshenko was wounded Thursday after an explosive went off near his car in Nalchik.
