3 killed in Chechnya pre-polls violence

In one incident, Chechen security forces conducted a raid "to eliminate a group of guerrillas manufacturing explosive devices" in the republic's Sunzha district, resulting in the deaths of one of the suspects and of a police officer, Interfax said. Separately, a Chechen police investigator named as Lieutenant Ruslan Murtazov was killed when unidentified attackers fired on his car in Chechnya's capital city, Grozny, the report said, quoting an unnamed Chechen interior ministry source.

The violence occurred one day before voters were to go to the polls to elect a new leader for the republic following the assassination last May of the previous leader, Akhmad Kadyrov.