Lawyers, activists and reporters against the govt are being killed in Russia mysteriously

Some recent high-profile slayings of activists, reporters and lawyers who have challenged Russian authorities in recent years. There have been no convictions in any of the following killings.

July 15, 2009: Natalya Estemirova — a human rights activist who was found shot dead in Ingushetia after being kidnapped in Chechnya earlier in the day. She was 50.

Jan 15: Stanislav Markelov — a human rights lawyer and journalist shot after leaving a press conference less than half a mile from the Kremlin. Markelov, 34, was appealing the early release of Yuri Budanov, a Russian military officer convicted of killing a young Chechen woman. Budanov was slated to be released 15 months before his sentence was complete.

Jan 15: Anastasia Baburova — a Ukrainian journalist and student at Moscow State University shot dead in the same attack as Markelov. Baburova investigated neo-Nazi activities for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She was 25.

Aug. 31, 2008: Magomed Yevloyev — a journalist, lawyer and opposition activist shot in the head while riding in a police car in Ingushetia, a Russian province that borders Chechnya. Police initially claimed that Yevloyev was shot after he tried to grab an assault rifle from one of the police officers. He was 37.

Oct. 7, 2006: Anna Politkovskaya — a journalist and human rights activist gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on the birthday of Vladimir Putin. Politkovskaya wrote about rights issues in the North Caucasus for the crusading newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She was 48.

July 9, 2004: Paul Klebnikov — the editor of Forbes Russia, shot dead when he was walking home late at night in Moscow. A slow-moving car shot him four times and it took an ill-equipped ambulance over an hour to reach him. Klebnikov investigated Russia’s murky business world. He was 41.