Khasanov, a cameraman working for the British news agency Reuters,
was killed by a bomb in Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya, according
to local and international press reports. The powerful bomb exploded at about 10:35 a.m. in the Dynamo Stadium
in the Chechen capital, Grozny, where Khasanov was covering the annual
Victory Day parade, which celebrates the Soviet Union’s 1945 victory
over Nazi Germany.
president, Akhmad Kadyrov. The bomb was placed in a concrete pillar
under the VIP section of the stadium, suggesting that Kadyrov and
other senior Chechen and Russian officials were targeted. Local authorities
found a second unexploded bomb in the stadium after the attack.
Khasanov, 33, had worked as a cameraman and photographer for the Moscow
bureau of Reuters since the 1990s. He covered the second Chechen war
and at times spent days trekking through the mountains into neighboring
Georgia to deliver video footage to Reuters, according to Reuters.
On May 17, rebel warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for
the bombing in a statement posted on the pro-rebel Web site Kavkazcenter.com,
according to international press reports. Russian authorities said
they had a number of suspects in the case, but the investigation was
ongoing at year’s end, according to CPJ sources in Moscow.