Yuri Budanov

On 7 May 2013, Yusup Temerkhanov was convicted by a jury of Budanov's murder and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. According to investigation, Temerkhanov's motive was revenge for his father, who was killed in 2000 during the Second Chechen War. Temerkhanov's defense lawyer, Murad Musayev, was charged with trying to bribe two jury members to find his client not guilty, but the charges against Musayev were dropped in February 2015 due to statute of limitations. Two jury members in question, Diana Lomonosova and Vitali Pronin, were also charged with taking that bribe of 6,000,000 rubles. Pronin plead guilty to the charges during his trial. Lomonosova was amnestied on 28 April 2015 due to being older than 50. Pronin was sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year and immediately amnestied on 5 May 2015. Temerkhanov denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty. He died while serving his sentence in a penal colony in Siberia in August 2018. Chechnya president Ramzan Kadyrov praised Temerkhanov as "people's hero" after attending his memorial service.

On 10 June 2011, Budanov was shot dead in Moscow; responsibility for the attack was later claimed by the Caucasus Emirate.

He was assassinated by Yusup-Khadzhi Temirkhanov on 10 June 2011 in Moscow, Russia.

Yuri Budanov was assassinated around 11:30 on 10 June 2011 in central Moscow (Hamovniki, Komsomolski prospekt), Russia. Six silenced shots were fired, four of which struck Budanov in the head. The killer escaped in a car driven by an accomplice. The car was subsequently found partially burned several blocks from the site of the attack. A gun believed to be a Makarov PM was found with a silencer inside the car. Budanov's wife witnessed the assassination and was held by Russian authorities. Russian police investigators commented that the attack was carefully planned and they considered blood revenge as one of the likely motives. One witness to the murder described the driver of the car from which the six shots were fired as being of Slavic appearance. Dokku Umarov claimed responsibility for the assassination as he sat by the commander of the Riyadus-Salikhiyn Brigade saying "I am addressing you today about a joyous occasion: yesterday, on 10 June, Allah by his will brought us a great celebration, punishing one of the sadists, the reprobate, the killer Budanov. The same fate, the same revenge awaits the others. Let these celebrations happen more often for Muslims." Upon the release of a video by Umarov, one of the investigators in the case said that "We have been expecting this kind of statement for a long time because the 'Chechen version' is one of the main ones we are working with. Nevertheless, these types of terrorist statements will not alter the course of our probe. We are studying all the leads."

Budanov was highly controversial in Russia: despite the conviction, Budanov enjoyed widespread support of Russian households as polled by public opinion. At the same time, he was broadly hated in Chechnya, even by the pro-Russian Chechens. In December 2008, a court in the south Russian Ulyanovsk Oblast granted a petition for early release. After eight years in prison (of the ten years he was sentenced), he was released on parole on 15 January 2009.

The judge who convicted Budanov, Vladimir Bukreyev, himself was convicted of bribe-taking and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on July 6, 2009.

The lawyer for the Kungayeva family, Stanislav Markelov, who had attempted a last-minute appeal against the release of Budanov, was shot dead in Moscow on 19 January 2009 along with Anastasia Baburova, a 25-year-old journalist for Novaya Gazeta. However, the investigation of Markelov's murder showеd in November 2009 that the murder was probably unrelated to this case, but committed by Neo-Nazis as a revenge for Markelov's support of Marxist activists as a lawyer.

On 24 December 2008, a court granted him a release on parole. This was the fifth attempt by Budanov's lawyers to obtain him a release on parole. Four applications before that were rejected. Victim's lawyers appealed to overturn the decision (thus the delay in release), but without success. Budanov was released on 15 January 2009, 15 months before completion of his conviction term. The decision was protested by Chechnya's human rights ombudsman, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, who accused Russian judges of "double standards" with regard to Russians and Chechens.

In February 2006, a Russian prison official announced that Budanov, who was serving his 10-year sentence, might be released early on good behaviour. The Chechen regional branch of the United Russia party addressed the State Duma and the Russian President with a request not to grant amnesty to Yuri Budanov. The same month, on the petition of Budanov's attorney, with account of good behaviour of the inmate, the former colonel was removed from the strict custody colony to a settlement-colony.

On 21 September 2004, Shamanov, now the Ulyanovsk regional governor, signed a pardon for Yury Budanov; Interfax quoted the head of the Ulyanovsk pardons commission, Anatoly Zherebtsov, as saying that if Putin backed the recommendation, Budanov would also get back his military rank and awards.

The trial began on April 9, 2003, in Rostov-on-Don. Legal proceedings against Budanov, who underwent several retrials, lasted a total of 2 years and 3 months.

However, in the beginning of March 2003 the supreme court invalidated the sentence and ordered a new trial. This took place in the same place but with a new judge. The sentence of 10 years of imprisonment was given on July 25, 2003.

In a controversial decision, Budanov was initially found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity on December 31, 2002, and committed to a psychiatric hospital for further evaluation and the length of the treatment would have been decided by his doctor.

According to the father of Budanov's victim, Budanov's tank regiment had been encamped just outside Tangi-Chu since February 2000, and Budanov himself had a notorious reputation among villagers. About ten days before the murder, Budanov reportedly arbitrarily searched and looted several homes in Tangi Chu, and two days before the incident he reportedly looted and threatened to torch several other homes.

From 2001 to 2003, Russian courts tried Colonel Yuri Budanov on the charges of March 27, 2000, kidnapping, rape (an allegation later withdrawn by the prosecution) and brutal murder of Elza Kungaeva, an 18-year-old Chechen woman whom Budanov alleged of being a sniper for Chechen rebels who were attacking his unit. He admitted killing her in a fit of rage, but denied the rape charges.

Budanov was arrested on March 29, 2000. According to press reports, Budanov claimed that Kungaeva was a suspected sniper, and that he had gone into a rage while questioning her.

The Chechen rebels offered to exchange nine recent OMON special police captives for Budanov. After the Russian side refused the offer, the prisoners were executed on the morning of April 4, 2000.

Three of Budanov's subordinates, Sergeants Li En Shou and Grigoriev and a Private Yegorev, were found responsible. Charges against all three were simultaneously brought and dropped under the May 26, 2000 amnesty law.

At the fall of the Soviet Union, Budanov was serving in Belarus, but he refused Belarusian citizenship and was transferred to the Siberian Military District, and then to Chechnya. In 1999 Budanov graduated from the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy, receiving the rank of Guards Colonel.

Yuri Dmitrievich Budanov (Russian: Ю́рий Дми́триевич Буда́нов , IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ˈdʲmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ bʊˈdanəf] ; 24 November 1963 – 10 June 2011) was a Russian military officer convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping and murder in Chechnya.

Budanov was born in 1963 in Khartsyzk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. He graduated from the Tank Military School in Kharkiv and went on officer career in the Soviet Army, particularly, serving with the Soviet base in Hungary.