Ilyas Shurpayev had reported from all the most dangerous parts of Russia, including Chechnya and his native Dagestan, but he was killed in his own apartment in the Russian capital. Police said he had been strangled to death; he was found with a belt around his neck and multiple knife wounds.
www.shurpayev.livejournal.com (now offline) posted 20 March at 3.49pm Moscow time.
'Hello, Sakharov – I'm a dissident! Well, I made it! Now I'm a dissident! Don't know whether to laugh or cry. I already wrote here that at a Dagestani newspaper there's a battle going on between the journalists and the founders. But all of this is far too serious and I don't really understand it. Here's what blows me away. The founders produced a list of people who it's forbidden to publish in the paper. You can't refer to them or even ... sorry, speak to them inside the walls of the editorial office. And there I am, right in the front row! At the top of the list!
I have never taken part in the political life of the republic [Dagestan] or even of my region, because I'm lazy ... Maybe I should do a "suitcases, train-station, off-to-Israel" turn so as not to become a second Khodorkovsky! Anyway. Matilda! Knit me some woollen socks. Just in case. My size is 43 and a half.'
Moscow shaken by killing of television journalist - Independent.co.uk
"Journalist of state-run TV channel brutally murdered in Moscow" PRAVDA.Ru