Sister of soldier lost in Dagestan complains to Putin about investigators

On October 28, Tatiana Ermolenko, a resident of the city of Kamishin, Volgograd Region, addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to take steps towards quicker investigation into the death of her brother Alexei Ermolenko, who died on his duty post in Buynaksk.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 10 law enforcement bodies reported about a shelling from a passenger car of the block-post of a military unit of the Ministry of Defence in the city of Buynaksk, where contract soldiers took their service; one of them was killed.

However, the investigation did not confirm that on September 10 in Buynaksk a soldier was killed in a militants' attack on the block-post, said Rasul Temirbekov, the spokesman of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF). According to his version, the soldier committed suicide in the military unit.

Alexei Ermolenko was killed; however, investigators have ignored the facts and instituted proceedings under the article of "incitement to suicide", Tatiana Ermolenko asserts in her letter to Mr Putin.

She asks the president to "give a legal assessment of the information contained herein and within the framework of his powers to take action to restore the rule of law and justice."