Group blames Chechen leader for activist's murder

By Aydar Buribayev and Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A human rights group blamed Chechnya's president for the kidnap and murder of a prominent activist, the latest in a series of slayings of establishment critics in Russia.

Natalia Estemirova, a close friend of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, worked for the human rights organisation Memorial in the Chechen capital Grozny and documented abuses by law enforcement agencies.

She was abducted on Wednesday morning in Chechnya, and her body was discovered later in woodland in neighbouring Ingushetia.

A Kremlin spokeswoman said President Dmitry Medvedev was "outraged" and had ordered an investigation.

Memorial's Chairman Oleg Orlov pointed the blame at Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel turned Kremlin loyalist.

"I know, I am sure of it, who is guilty for the murder of Natalia... His name is Ramzan Kadyrov," he said in a statement on Memorial's website www.memo.ru late on Wednesday.

"Ramzan already threatened Natalia, insulted her, considered her a personal enemy."

Interfax news agency quoted Kadyrov as saying the perpetrators of her "monstrous" murder "deserve no support and must be punished as the cruellest of criminals."