Khadzhiev, chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television (ORT), was fatally shot while attempting to leave Grozny by car with his wife and young son. ORT reported that Chechen rebels targeted Khadzhiev, an ethnic Chechen, because he supported the Moscow-installed government. But an unidentified passenger in their car told NTV, Russia’s only independent television station, that Russian armored vehicles had opened fire on them.