In Russia, a prominent human rights lawyer was assassinated on Monday, days after he protested the release of the highest-ranking Russian officer convicted of atrocities in the Chechen war. The attorney, Stanislav Markelov, was the director of the Rule of Law Institute, a civil liberties group. He had represented many labor unions, environmental groups and journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in 2006. A twenty-five-year-old journalist who was with Markelov was also shot dead.