MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/: Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists Thursday that it was utterly illogical to tie the murder of a Chechen national in Austria to Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic.
"This has nothing to do with sound logic. A murdered Austrian citizen and Ramzan Kadyrov? So if he criticized Ramzan Kadyrov and if he is a Chechen, then you have to point to Kadyrov right away? You must agree that this is not logical," Peskov said, commenting on media rumors, trying to connect the murder of the blogger, who previously criticized Kadyrov, with the head of Chechnya himself.
"It is just impossible to speak about this from that perspective," Peskov added.
Noting that Kadyrov himself spoke about it earlier, the spokesman speculated that "he must have been asked as well and he must have troubles understanding what is going on too."
The Kremlin learned about the incident from the media, Peskov said. "We do not have more detailed information," he continued. "After all, this happened on Austrian territory, and the murdered citizen himself lived in Austria for a long time, he was a migrant. I am unaware of his legal status, whether he was an Austrian citizen or a refugee, we don’t know that."
Earlier, sources in the Austrian police told TASS that a 43-year-old asylum seeker, a Russian citizen, was shot in Austria’s Gerasdorf. One suspect, a 47-year-old Russian national, was apprehended over the incident.
The Korneuburg Prosecutor’s Office told TASS that the murdered Russian citizen was a Chechen national, named Martin Beck in Austria in accordance with the identity protection program. Both apprehended suspects are also Chechen nationals. The Prosecutor’s Office checks politics as the motive behind the murder, because the victim had a blog where he expressed his political positions. Kadyrov himself accused intelligence services working against Russia of the murder.
