Unidentified forces kill Ukrainian nationalist Moscow called terrorist

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Olexander Muzychko, the leader of a right-wing nationalist political group in Ukraine, was gunned down on March 24 in the western Ukrainian city of Rivne. Mr. Muzychko was best known in and outside Ukraine as an extreme nationalist with an anti-Russian penchant. Moscow tried to blame him as a symbol of what went wrong inside Ukraine in the recent uprising that overthrew Moscow’s ally President Viktor Yanukovych. But Muzychko was already under investigation by Ukrainian authorities for organized crime. Read MORE

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Olexander Muzychko

Moscow accused Muzychko of being a terrorist who was responsible for the torturing and death of more than 20 Russian military personnel in the restive Chechen area in 1994 and 1995.

During the recent unrest in Ukraine, Muzychko was known as an open critic of the interim government for its alleged impotence against Russian aggression in Crimea.

One week before his death, Muzychko was profiled by the U.S.-run Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in a lengthy interview. He was described in the profile as “a burly, volatile man with a violent temper.”

“At a time when many Euromaidan organizers were desperate to keep the protest movement peaceful, Muzychko and other Right Sector members, operating under leader DmytroYarosh, were committed to a militarized fight against the regime of now-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych,” the Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty profile said.

Muzychko was also quoted in the profile as saying that “The person who holds the Kalashnikov is the person who calls the shots.”

He was particularly enraged by the Ukraine’s interim government’s inability to prevent Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“The authorities should have ordered mobilization and put the military on high alert a long time ago because our county is being occupied now…Foreign troops are occupying parts of our country. They have occupied Crimea and are provoking our troops. Special [Russian] military units and saboteurs are operating throughout Crimea,” he was quoted as saying.

It was not entirely clear who actually killed Muzychko on March 24. The Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, said he was gunned down “in an operation by Ukrainian special forces,” citing a senior Ukrainian official as the source.

“[Olexander Muzychko] attempted to escape through a window and opened fire on law enforcement, injuring one of the officers before being killed by return fire,” RIA Novosti reported, again citing a Ukrainian official.

But inside Ukraine, some vocal voices cast doubt on this account. A Ukrainian member of the parliament stated that a group of unidentified armed gunmen kidnapped Muzychko from a café and fired two shots into his heart killing him instantly behind the café.

But one day after Muzychko’s death, police said that he killed himself during a police raid.
Muzychko’s death has enraged the Right Sector’s political leader Dmytro Yarosh who harbors presidential ambitions. He has called for the resignation of the interim government’s interior minister and the prosecution of those who killed Muzychko.

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