LEADING MOSCOW JUDGE GUNNED DOWN

A leading Russian federal judge has been shot dead at his apartment building in central Moscow, court officials have said.

Eduard Chuvashov was shot by an unknown gunman who fled the scene, police told the Ria Novosti news agency.

He had presided over several cases involving nationalist organisations and had received many death threats.

In February, he sentenced nine members of a neo-Nazi skinhead group called the White Wolves to up to 23 years in jail.

He also worked on cases involving Russian officials accused of corruption and embezzlement.

“An unidentified person shot Mr Chuvashov in the entrance to an apartment block and then fled,” a police source was quoted by Ria Novosti as saying, adding that investigators were at the scene.

Reports say he died from a chest wound, the Ekho Moskvy radio station said.