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