Far-Right Russian Politician Wounded
Gunmen shot and wounded the leader of a far-right Russian nationalist party and killed his two bodyguards Tuesday as the three men left his home in St. Petersburg, police said.
Yuri Belyayev, who also headed a private security firm, is widely known for his nationalist views and has sent supporters to Bosnia-Herzegovina to fight for that country’s Serbs.
A legal official, who declined to be named, linked the shooting to Belyayev’s business affairs.
But Vladimir Lapin, the head of the party’s organizing committee, told the Itar-Tass news agency that he believed the attack was connected to Belyayev’s political activities.
Itar-Tass said Belyayev became leader of the National Republican Party when it merged Sunday with his former party, the People’s Social Party, whose symbol was a bird with a swastika on its tail.
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