Russian investigators have detained two suspects over the high-profile killings of a human rights lawyer and journalist in January.
Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who had exposed abuses by the Russian army in Chechnya, and Anastasia Baburova, an intern reporter at opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, were shot dead on 19 January in central Moscow.
An unnamed law-enforcement source said that the two detained suspects were former members of Russian National Unity, a banned far-right group.
Meanwhile local newspapers reported that the detainees were a young woman and a man, citing law-enforcement sources.
Investigators believe the young woman tailed the victims and told the killer of their whereabouts.
The suspects were not named in the reports.
The masked gunman managed to run away after the shootings, which took place in broad daylight on a busy street.
The double murder drew international attention and followed a series of killings of human rights activists and journalists in Russia, many of which remain unsolved.
Investigators said after the shootings that they were looking into a link to Mr Markelov's professional activities.
The killings came just after Mr Markelov gave a press conference on the case of Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year-old Chechen girl whose 2000 strangling by Russian army colonel Yury Budanov became a cause celebre.
In a case highlighting systematic abuse by the Russian army in the war in Chechnya, Mr Markelov had vowed to challenge a controversial court decision to grant early release to Budanov.
The human rights lawyer had also represented Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, murdered in 2006.
The other victim, Ms Baburova, was a campaigning journalist who wrote a number of reports on Russia's growing problem of racism and ultra-nationalism. Witnesses said she tried to detain the killer after he shot Mt Markelov.
The murders were condemned by the European Union, which expressed ‘deep concern’ and called for an independent investigation into the slayings.
