This has been all over the news.  Booman outta have his so-called "reality based" credentials ripped from his neck.  Medvedev is pissed and has ordered and investigation.  The relationship between Kadyrov's gang and the Kremlin is real but each one thinks they are the ones really calling the shots so it's really anyone's guess who is to blame here.  FWIW, Kadyrov's people are nuts enough to do this type of thing.  I don't think anyone in the Kremlin or (Russian) White House have anything to gain by having activists or journalists killed at this point.  Plus there is the possibility of individuals not acting on orders from the top.

One thing I never hear people mention is that the people who automatically blame "the Kremlin" or VVP himself when a journalist is murdered in a part of the world where crime and murder are rife are the same people who will mew and moan and cry foul that people like Khodorkovsky do not get a fair trial.

Either you support due process or do not.  I do.  

I'm getting really effing sick of both parties in this story.  I think both these martyred activist-journalists and the Kremlin are given too much import and reach in these stories.  I find it implausible that one story out of Novaya Gazetta is going to bring down the whole Russian Government, or that people trying to run a county as vast and with so many problems as Russia have nothing better to do than hunt down relatively unknown journalists for game.  

And the ironic thing is that it is real journalism that suffers as result.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.