Officials say a journalist with state-controlled Russian television was found dead in his Moscow apartment early Friday.

Firefighters who came to put out a fire at his apartment found the body of 32-year-old Ilyas Shurpayev. Police said he appeared to have been strangled with a belt and had multiple stab wounds.

Shurpayev moved to Moscow from the mostly Muslim Dagestan province and had reported extensively from Russia's violence-ridden North Caucasus region and neighboring areas of Georgia.

More than a dozen journalists have been slain in contract-style killings in Russia since 2000. Many journalists appear to have been targeted for beatings and killings because of their attempts to report on allegations of official corruption.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.