Chechen former official survives assassination attempt at his home near Moscow

A former official in both the governments of Chechnya and Ingushetia in Russia’s North Caucasus has been hospitalised after surviving an assassination attempt at his home outside Moscow on Thursday night, Russian investigators reported on Friday.

The Russian Investigative Committee reported the incident on Friday morning without naming the victim, saying that “an unknown perpetrator” had fired at least four shots from a firearm at the victim’s house in the village of Lapino near Odintsovo, a town in the Moscow region, before fleeing the scene.

The victim, who was named by Telegram channels Mash and Baza as Sherip Alikhadzhiev, an aide to Russian State Duma Deputy Vladimir Shamanov, was hospitalised with two gunshot wounds, and is currently in intensive care.

Ethnically Chechen, Sherip Alikhadzhiev formerly held government posts in Chechnya, having been a close ally of Akhmad Kadyrov, the father of Chechnya’s current head, Ramzan Kadyrov, during the Second Chechen War. Following Akhmad Kadyrov’s death in 2004, Alikhadzhiev worked for the government of neighbouring Ingushetia.

It is unclear whether the assassination attempt was related to the recent surge in inter-ethnic tensions between the Chechen and Ingush peoples, who have a long history of feuding, following a failed Chechen-led raid on the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries, in which two Ingush security guards were killed.

Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov commented on the Wildberries raid and the ensuing tensions for the first time on Thursday, warning the public against “stirring up” the situation, stressing that accusing Kadyrovites of staging the raid was “an attempt to paint this as an ethnic issue”.

Kadyrov also threatened three Russian lawmakers — Senator Suleyman Kerimov and State Duma Deputy Rizvan Kurbanov, both from Dagestan, as well as State Duma Deputy Bekhan Barakhoev, from neighbouring Ingushetia.

According to Ingush independent media outlet Fortanga, Kadyrov claimed that the three lawmakers had “seized” Wildberries from its owner, Russia’s richest woman Tatyana Kim, and had attempted to order Kadyrov’s assassination. “If they don’t prove otherwise, I’m officially declaring a blood feud,” he warned.