Mike Pence: “At around 9:00 p.m. on June 28, 2005, in the city of Makhachkala, assailants armed with machine guns opened fire on…”

“At around 9:00 p.m. on June 28, 2005, in the city of Makhachkala, assailants armed with machine guns opened fire on Magomedzagid Varisov's sedan as he drove home with his wife. Varisov sustained multiple bullet wounds and died at the scene. The likely motive for Varisov's assassination was his work as a journalist and a commentator. For three years prior to his murder, Varisov wrote analytical columns for the Novoye Delo, Dagestan's largest weekly newspaper. Dagestan, a Russian republic bordering the Caspian Sea, has been the scene of low-level political violence and unrest driven by a separatist rebellion since 2000. Varisov was often critical of the Dagestan separatists, and his expertise on the Northern Caucuses made him a highly sought after resource for reporters and researchers. As a journalist and a pundit, Varisov wrote that the opposition was trying to destabilize the republic and topple the regional government and authored investigative pieces into terrorism and organized crime in the region.”