Double murder

One of two suspects arrested for the high-profile killings of two people who exposed abuses of the Russian army in Chechnya has confessed, his lawyer said Friday.

But the motive of 24-year-old Nikita Tikhonov, who was charged with the murders this week along with Yevgenia Khasis, was "personal and in no way linked to his professional activities," lawyer Evgeni Skirpelev said.

Anastasia Baburova of the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta had been working with Markelov when they were killed together on January 19. Skirpelev told reporters that his client Tikhonov "regretted that she was next to the lawyer" when they were shot.

Tikhonov also apparently denied an accusation by the head of the FSB security service, Alexander Bortnikov, that he was a member of an extreme nationalist group. Bortnikov said the unnamed group was amassing weapons and had been implicated in a racist murder. The FSB chief made the accusation while briefing President Dmitry Medvedev about the arrests.

Tikhonov also insisted that he had acted alone in the killings. Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that investigators believe Khasis tailed the victims and informed Tikhonov of their whereabouts.

The masked gunman managed to flee after the shootings, carried out in broad daylight on a busy street in the Russian capital.

The arrests had been cautiously welcomed by human rights groups, who complain that many killings of Russian journalists and activists go unsolved.

bk/AFP/AP

Editor: Rick Demarest