Security camera footage captured two masked men climbing into the organization’s office in the town of Nazran and setting three rooms on fire. The attack came a week after the arrest of Oyub Tityev, the head of Memorial’s branch in Chechnya, on drug charges his supporters say are fabricated.

Unknown arsonists wearing masks torched the office of Russia’s renowned Memorial human rights group in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia on Wednesday morning.

“We see a clear link between this arson attack and the forces that are trying to destroy the work of Memorial’s human rights center in Chechnya and to force Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region,” the group said in an online statement published Wednesday.

Memorial’s office in Nazran has reported on human rights violations in the region for more than 17 years.

The NGO said it considered the arson attack “an act of terrorism” and asked regional authorities to conduct an investigation.

The arson attack came three days after the arrival of a group of activists, lawyers and investigative journalists who were covering Titiyev’s case, the investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported Wednesday.

“[The arson attack] is a clear signal to human rights defenders that should be interpreted as a threat,” the newspaper cited Titiyev’s attorney Pyotr Zaikin as saying.</s>GROZNY, Russia - Memorial says its office in Ingushetia has been torched in a "terrorist" attack that the prominent Russian human rights group said was part of a campaign to chase it out of the North Caucasus.

A leading member of Memorial, which has sought to document abuses in the region despite years of pressure and the killing of at least one activist, told RFE/RL on January 17 that assailants set fire to the office in Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city, overnight.

Oleg Orlov said security cameras showed that two masked men arrived at the office at about 3:30 a.m. local time, used a ladder to climb to the second floor, and broke into the premises through a window.

A photograph on the group's website showed a gutted blackened room, and Orlov said that three of the six rooms in the building were seriously damaged.

"We consider it a terrorist attack," he told RFE/RL by telephone, saying that its apparent goal was to "frighten ordinary people" and deal a blow to Memorial.

Orlov linked the incident to the pressure Memorial has come under in neighboring Chechnya, where the head of the rights group's office was arrested on January 9 and is being held on a drug-possession charge, which he and supporters contend is false.

"This attack is not random. A criminal case was fabricated against Oyub Titiyev and...massive pressure is being imposed on Memorial in Chechnya," he said. "It looks like they consider Memorial an enemy that they want to remove" from the North Caucasus.

Memorial echoed that assessment, saying that its office in Nazran "is exclusively dedicated to human rights problems in Ingushetia and in no way linked to Chechen issues."

"Nonetheless, it's obvious to us that there is a link between the arson attack with those forces who are trying to destroy the work of Memorial in Chechnya and squeeze Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region," it said in a statement.

Human rights activists say that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who was appointed by Putin in 2007 to head the region in the North Caucasus, rules through repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces. They also charge that Kadyrov has been responsible for abuses that include kidnappings, disappearances, torture, and killings of political opponents.

Natalya Estemirova, who was Titiyev's predecessor at Memorial in Chechnya and was investigating alleged rights abuses in Chechnya by regional authorities and Russian military forces, was abducted and killed in 2009.

Kremlin critics say President Vladimir Putin turns a blind eye to alleged abuses and violations of the Russian Constitution by Kadyrov because he relies on the former rebel to control separatist sentiments and violence in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet wars and an Islamist insurgency that spread to other mostly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus.

In a statement, the Emergency Situations Ministry branch in Ingushetia reported the fire but said nothing about the cause and made no mention of Memorial.

Tanya Lokshina, a Moscow-based senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, condemned what she called the arson attack and also linked it to Titiyev's case.

"There is little doubt that this brazen crime has everything to do with Memorial’s current work in Chechnya and the attempts by Memorial’s leadership and lawyers to ensure Oyub Titiyev’s release," Lokshina wrote on Facebook.

Titiyev, 60, was detained on January 9 by police who claimed to have found about 180 grams of marijuana in his car.

In a letter addressed to Putin and made public on January 16, Titiyev said he was innocent, accused police of planting the drugs, and voiced concern that he could be tortured or his family threatened in an effort to extract a confession.

Western governments and human rights organizations condemned Titiyev's arrest and called for his release.

Titiyev's attorney Pavel Zaikin said on January 15 that police in Chechnya have ignored Titiyev's medical needs and kept him in a temporary police detention unit that has no medical staff.

On January 14, Zaikin said that some of Titiyev's relatives left Chechnya after police imposed pressure on them.

Memorial has charged that the case against Titiyev was "fabricated" in retaliation against the activist's human rights activities.

Putin's advisory council on human rights has urged the Investigative Committee to look into the circumstances of Titiyev's detention, saying there are "grounds to believe" the marijuana "could have been planted" in his car.

In December 2014, the office of another human rights group, the Committee to Prevent Torture, was destroyed in an apparent arson attack in Chechnya's capital, Grozny.Nobody has been held accountable.</s>The head of the southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has ordered an investigation into the circumstances of a fire on Wednesday at the Memorial human rights center’s branch in Nazran. The fire was reportedly contained at 06:10, and was put out at 06:20, with no reported victims. The causes of ignition have not been immediately clear, but Memorial says “it was not just a fire… but arson,” citing data from security cameras. It allegedly showed a car approaching the building and two masked people carrying a container. They reached the second-floor window of the building where Memorial’s office is located using a ladder, according to the report. First responders arrived quickly and contained the blaze, which destroyed equipment and some documents, Memorial board member Oleg Orlov told TASS.</s>MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two masked men set fire to the office of one of Russia’s biggest human rights groups in southern Russia on Wednesday, an arson attack which the group, Memorial, said was part of a campaign to drive it from the region.

CCTV of the incident showed the men setting a ladder against the red brick building in Nazran, a town in the Russian region of Ingushetia which borders Chechnya, in the early hours of the morning and sparks leaping from its windows shortly afterwards.

Pictures of the office after the fire showed its blackened interior strewn with fire-damaged debris. Memorial said documents and office equipment had been destroyed.

Memorial is under pressure in the Muslim-majority North Caucasus region after police in Chechnya detained the head of its office there this month and accused him of possessing a large quantity of cannabis, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Concerns about the case of the detained activist, Oyub Titiev, who has written to President Vladimir Putin saying he was framed and that the police planted the drugs in his car, prompted the United States and Europe to call for his release.

Memorial has angered authorities in Chechnya by reporting disappearances, torture and punitive house burnings there, and Titiev’s predecessor, Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and shot dead in 2009. Nobody has been convicted of her killing.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has said allegations that Chechen authorities use illegal violence are false and invented to secure foreign grants.

Memorial on Wednesday called on the authorities in Ingushetia to investigate the arson attack as an act of terrorism.

“The work of Memorial’s representative office in Ingushetia is exclusively dedicated to human rights problems on the territory of Ingushetia and in no way linked to Chechnya,” Memorial said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, it’s obvious to us that there is a link between the arson attack with those forces who are trying to destroy the work of Memorial in Chechnya and squeeze Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region.”

Memorial staff handling the detention case had been based in Ingushetia and said police had frequently stopped them for document checks.

The Kremlin played down Memorial’s problems. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it would be wrong to draw any generalised conclusions about the detention of the Memorial activist, saying that only investigators were in a position to judge the nature of the allegations against him.

Peskov also cautioned against making a link between the detention and the arson attack, saying the incidents had occurred in two different regions.</s>Computers and documents are destroyed in the attack, according to a statement on rights group Memorial's website

MOSCOW, Russia – Two masked men set fire to the office of top Russian rights group Memorial in volatile Ingushetia a week after the arrest of its director in neighboring Chechnya, the group said Wednesday, January 17.

Computers and documents were destroyed in the attack, according to a statement on Memorial's website.

Memorial said a CCTV camera recorded the two men entering its office building at night in Nazran, a town in the Republic of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus, and throwing canisters into the group's workplace through an internal window.

Footage seen by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) shows a man in a balaclava using a ladder to adjust a security camera on the building.

The group published photos of the aftermath of the fire, including a photo of a bottle it believes contained a flammable substance.

Last week, Chechnya detained the director of the local Memorial branch Oyub Titiyev for drug possession that activists say are bogus. The case has received international condemnation.

Amnesty International called on Russian authorities on Wednesday to "investigate and put an end to the coordinated assault on human rights NGO Memorial," though the Kremlin claimed the incidents are not related.

Memorial speaks about human rights violations in Russia and has specifically accused Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov of heading a totalitarian regime that uses kidnapping and torture.

The rights group said the link between the arson attack in Ingushetia and "those forces who are trying to destroy the work of Memorial in Chechnya and pressure the organization as a whole in the North Caucasus is obvious".

It added that it considers the arson attack a "terrorist act" and called on local authorities to investigate.

But the Kremlin dismissed the link between the two cases.

"I don't think that such conclusions can be drawn on the bases of a famous Memorial director in Chechnya stopped with drugs," the Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"These are two different republics, two different subjects of the Russian Federation," Peskov added.

Ingushetia is a poor region neighbouring Chechnya, and rights workers often use it as a base to work in Chechnya, where their activity is less tolerated.

Human Rights Watch said the torched office was opened in 2000 and was used to interview victims of torture or relatives of those disappeared or executed during and after the war in Chechnya.

"This despicable attack likely has everything to do with Memorial's work in neighbouring Chechnya," including efforts to free Titiyev, it said.

Kadyrov is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist for a decade.

The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks on Wednesday condemned the "succession of events that illustrates the threatening climate" for human rights defenders in the North Caucasus.

Attacks on rights groups in Russia's volatile North Caucasus are not uncommon.

In 2014 the office of human rights organisation the Joint Mobile Group was torched after it criticised the Kremlin-installed Chechen leader for calling for collective punishment against families of Islamist insurgents. – Rappler.com</s>Hours before dawn today, masked arsonists torched the Ingushetia office of Russia’s leading human rights organization, Memorial. Despite fire fighters’ efforts, it’s now little more than scorched debris.

This despicable attack likely has everything to do with Memorial’s work in neighboring Chechnya and its efforts to secure the release of Oyub Titiev, Memorial’s Chechnya director, who was arrested last week by Chechen authorities on bogus drug possession charges.

For many years, Memorial’s Ingushetia office has been home to those documenting abuses during and after the war in Chechnya – Russians and foreigners, journalists and human rights investigators. The office opened in 2000, as Ingushetia was flooded with people fleeing Chechnya. It’s where we interviewed countless victims of torture, and grieving relatives of people forcibly disappeared or extra-judicially executed, in earlier years, by Russian military and security officials, and then by Moscow-sponsored Chechen authorities.

Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya through brutal repression with the Kremlin’s blessing for over a decade; as he stepped up his vicious crackdown against even the mildest critics in recent years, some witnesses felt safer sharing their stories outside Chechnya – and Ingushetia is just next door.

Footage from a security camera outside Memorial’s office in the town of Nazran showed that at 3.35 a.m. on January 17, a car stopped by the two-story building and two men in face masks got out, carrying what looked like a plastic canister. One of them put up a ladder to the office window and started climbing up. After they were no longer visible on camera, they apparently broke the window to enter the premises, doused the room with a flammable liquid, and set it on fire. The camera recorded them climbing down, getting into their car and driving off. Fire fighters arrived and stopped the fire from consuming all of the office and the rest of the building. A police investigation is ongoing.

After Titiev’s brazen arrest, two leading Memorial representatives and a defense attorney from Moscow arrived in Ingushetia. They’ve been making the 90-minute drive to Chechnya every morning to work on the case, and then returning at night. They told me they were experienced harassment and surveillance while going about their business in Chechnya.

Titiev’s arrest is clearly aimed at punishing him for his human rights work and forcing Memorial to stop exposing abuses by Chechen authorities. Given these circumstances, the arson attack on Memorial’s office is surely no coincidence.</s>One of Russia's biggest human rights groups said on Wednesday that one of its offices in southern Russia had been badly damaged in an overnight arson attack, an incident it said was part of a campaign to drive it from the region.

Pictures of the office of the group, Memorial, in Nazran, a town in the Russian region of Ingushetia which borders Chechnya, showed the blackened interior of an office strewn with fire-damaged debris.

Memorial is under pressure in the Muslim-majority North Caucasus region after police in Chechnya detained the head of its office there this month and accused him of possessing a large quantity of cannabis, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Concerns about the case of the detained activist, Oyub Titiev, who has written to President Vladimir Putin saying that he was framed and that the police planted the drugs in his car, prompted the United States and Europe to call for his release.

Memorial has angered authorities in Chechnya by reporting disappearances, torture and punitive house burnings there. Titiev's predecessor, Natalia Estemirova, was kidnapped and shot dead in 2009. Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has said allegations that Chechen authorities use illegal violence are false and invented to secure foreign grants.

Memorial said it had captured some of the overnight arson attack on CCTV which showed two masked men breaking into its office with petrol cans and called on the authorities in Ingushetia to investigate the attack as an act of terrorism.

"The work of Memorial's representative office in Ingushetia is exclusively dedicated to human rights problems on the territory of Ingushetia and in no way linked to Chechnya,” Memorial said in a statement. "Nonetheless, it's obvious to us that there is a link between the arson attack with those forces who are trying to destroy the work of Memorial in Chechnya and squeeze Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region."</s>MOSCOW - Two masked men set fire to the office of one of Russia's biggest human rights groups in southern Russia on Wednesday, an arson attack which the group, Memorial, said was part of a campaign to drive it from the region.



CCTV of the incident showed the men setting a ladder against the red brick building in Nazran, a town in the Russian region of Ingushetia which borders Chechnya, in the early hours of the morning and sparks leaping from its windows shortly afterwards.



Pictures of the office after the fire showed its blackened interior strewn with fire-damaged debris. Memorial said documents and office equipment had been destroyed.</s>Masked men have torched the offices of a prominent human rights organisation in Ingushetia in southern Russia, days after the head of its operations in neighbouring Chechnya was arrested on hotly disputed drug charges.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights group, published photographs of its charred offices in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, a republic in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region.

The human rights group said that according to CCTV footage the attack happened early on Wednesday morning and was carried out by two masked men carrying petrol cans who climbed into a second floor window. The offices were empty at the time.

“Memorial considers this to be a terrorist act,” the organisation said in a statement. “There is clearly a link between this arson attack and those forces that are trying to destroy Memorial’s work in Chechnya and force Memorial out of the entire North Caucasus region.”

On 9 January, Oyub Titiev, the 60-year-old head of Memorial’s offices in Chechnya, was arrested and charged with possession of more than six ounces of marijuana. He faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Titiev, who took over at Memorial’s Chechen office after the murder in 2009 of his colleague Natalia Estemirova, has denied the allegations and said the drugs were planted on him by police. Human rights activists have said the charges are revenge for Titiev’s exposure of rights abuses by officials loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-installed leader of Chechnya. His arrest came shortly after Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen parliament, described human rights activists as “enemies of the people” and suggested they should be executed.

The US state department and the Council of Europe have both called on the Chechen authorities to release Titiev.

Titiev’s lawyer, Pyotr Zaikin, told Russian media this week that Chechen authorities had threatened to arrest the human rights activist’s relatives if he did not confess to the charges.

“If I confess, this will mean that I have been forced to plead guilty by means of either physical pressure or blackmail,” Titiev wrote in a letter to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that was published by Memorial.</s>- Masked attackers on Wednesday torched the office of the prominent Russian rights group Memorial in the region of Ingushetia, the latest escalation of tensions between the activists and officials in the North Caucasus.

The arson attack that Memorial said happened in the early hours came a week after the chief of the group's branch in neighboring Chechnya was detained on suspicion of drug possession. The man's arrest has been widely regarded as a payoff by Chechen authorities for Memorial's work exposing rampant rights abuses in the region that saw two separatist wars in the 1990s.

Oleg Orlov, chief of Memorial's North Caucasus research, told The Associated Press he believes the attack is linked to the crackdown on the activists' work in Chechnya.

"I have no other theories: the only place we have tense relations with in the region is Chechnya," Orlov said by the phone from the Ingush capital, Nazran.

Orlov said Memorial, which also investigates rights abuse in Ingushetia, does not encounter hostility from authorities there like it does in Chechnya.

Ingushetia's leader, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, earlier on Wednesday met with Orlov and other activists and assured them of his support in conducting a fair probe, Orlov said.

Repression against government critics and rights advocates has often spilled over from Chechnya to neighboring Ingushetia, where Chechen operatives have been known to have a free hand.

A long-time Memorial activist in Chechnya, Natalya Estemirova, was kidnapped in 2010, and her body was found in Ingushetia. In 2016, a group of journalists traveling to Chechnya was attacked near the border between the two regions. Neither incident has been solved.

The attack on Memorial's office in Nazran came a week after Oyub Titiyev, chief of the group's branch in Chechnya, was arrested for drug possession. Police said marijuana was found in the car of the 60-year old activist after he was stopped by police. Memorial has described Titiyev's arrest as an attempt to muffle a rare critic of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday denied suggestions of a possible link between the crackdown on Memorial in Chechnya and Wednesday's arson attack in Ingushetia, saying the two incidents happened in two different regions.

Memorial has been a source for reports of enforced disappearances, torture and collective punishment perpetrated in Chechnya under Kadyrov. Local authorities have dismissed Memorial as an enemy, paid for by the West to smear the local government.

Orlov said he and some other Moscow-based activists have been staying in Ingushetia since late last week, traveling to Chechnya every day to work on the Titiyev case. Orlov said Memorial's car had been consistently followed and stopped by the police in Chechnya.

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In Nazran, Ingushetia, arsonists set fire to the office of Memorial, a Russian human rights organization.