Moscow, July 04: The top Russian health ministry official working in Chechnya was killed when his vehicle hit a mine and was ambushed in the separatist republic's capital Grozny, Russian media reported. Nikolai Ponomaryov was killed instantly in the explosion yesterday, as were his two bodyguards, while the driver of the vehicle was also seriously injured after the car drove over the mine and into an ambush. A Chechen police source, quoted by Itar-Tass, described the killings as an score-settling assassination carried out by hired attackers in the shelled-out capital, which has been battered by a 33-month guerrilla war.
Pro-Russian Chechen officials, quoted by Interfax, said Ponomaryov was seeking to verify how funds from Moscow for the republic's health system had been spent.
In an apparently related incident, Itar-Tass said an official responsible for Moscow's reconstruction finances for Chechnya,Vladimir Trifonov, was hospitalised in Moscow after being attacked by unidentified assailants in the city.

A finance official quoted by the news agency said the two operations appeared to have been carefully planned, with both men linked to "the spending of public funds in Checnya".
Russia's interior ministry had in may opened an internal enquiry into the diversion of several million dollars allocated by Moscow for Chechnya's reconstruction, with several pro-Russian officials there accused of corruption.
Russian troops stormed into Chechnya in October 1999 to stamp out suspected terrorist bases. Over 4000 Russian soldiers and tens of thousands of Chechens have been killed in the fighting.

Bureau Report