Thu Feb 5, 1:28 AM

 

 

MOSCOW (AFP) – Two people were gunned down on Moscow’s streets overnight in what appeared the latest in a spate of contract murders in the capital, Russian news agencies reported Thursday .

 

A former deputy mayor of the Chechen capital Grozny was shot three times in the head outside his home, Interfax quoted a police source as saying.

 

The man, 36-year-old Gilani Shepiyeva, had survived an assassination attempt in 2006.

 

Separately, an oil trader of Georgian origin was shot while walking his dog.

 

“The signs are this was most probably a contract killing,” Interfax quoted a police source as saying.

 

The incidents come after a well-known human rights lawyer and a young female journalist were gunned down in Moscow last month, amid a resurgence in contract killings, many thought to be connected to Chechnya.