MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed an adviser to Ingushetia's president on Saturday as he was being driven through a town in the turbulent southern Russian republic bordering Chechnya. Vakha Vedzizhev, 55, was a well-known figure in Ingushetia, having advised President Murat Zyazikov on religious matters. He had recently received death threats, RIA Novosti news agency said, citing law enforcement agencies in the republic. Vedzizhev died on the way to hospital after being shot in his car in the town of Karabulak at about 1300 local time (0900 GMT), RIA Novosti reported, quoting an unnamed official from the republic's interior ministry. The gunmen fled the scene. Kidnappings and shoot-outs are not unusual in Ingushetia, an impoverished region with a high crime rate to which many separatist rebels from Chechnya fled after being forced out by Russian troops. In March, unidentified gunmen kidnapped an uncle of President Zyazikov from a village outside the region's biggest town, Nazran. He has not been released. The Kremlin has ordered Zyazikov, who became president in 2002, to crack down on crime and prevent the spread of the insurgency.
