Counter Organized Crime Unit Head killed in Kabardino-Balkaria

On January 12, 2008 the head of Kabardino-Balkaria’s regional anti-organized crime directorate (UBOP) Colonel Anatoly Kyarov, was shot to death along with his bodyguard on the evening when their car came under fire near the headquarters of the republic’s drug control department in Nalchik, the republican capital. Kyarov’s driver and two bystanders were wounded in the attack. According to investigators, gunmen located in two firing positions shot at Kyarov’s car 101 times using automatic weapons of various calibers.

Colonel Anatoly Kyarov and his UBOP squad were accused of serious human rights abuses within Kabardino-Balkaria, including of torture and murder.

Before his assassination in Nalchik, Colonel Anatoly Kyarov was in charge of a special unit that targeted the leader of the Kabardino-Balkarian section of the Caucasus front Anzor Astemirov (killed in March, 2010). Kyarov’s unit was an independent operation, with its own designated budget and resources, and reported only to the head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Anti-Terrorism Commission. The unit’s plans for their target ranged from persuading Astemirov to surrender all the way up to killing him.

See also at Agentura.Ru:

• Timeline 2011 / The worsening situation in the Elbrus
• All roads lead into Nalchik / Agentura.Ru's investigation of Nalchik's attack in 2005