SOCHI, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - A recent series of murders in the Caucasus is an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region, the Russian president said on Friday.

"What has happened is a series of political murders and assassination attempts with the aim of destabilizing the situation in the Caucasus," Dmitry Medvedev told a news conference.

A number of high-profile killings in the Russia's Caucasus region have focused attention on the region.

Ingushetia's construction minister was gunned down in his office on Wednesday; the murder follows the killing of a Supreme Court judge and the attempted assassination of the republic's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in late June. Last month the Ingush forensic chief was also gunned down.

In addition, in neighboring Chechnya three human rights activists have been abducted and killed over the past month.

Medvedev blamed the murders on forces unhappy with the present situation in Russia and said they were receiving financial assistance from abroad.

"Forces that are displeased with this [positive] trend in development [in Russia] - have renewed their activities, they are receiving support and backing from foreign sources, and they have triggered new terrorist mechanisms, using new terrorist technology," Medvedev said.

Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus regions have seen a rise in violence in recent months. Attacks on police, officials and troops have been reported almost daily in Ingushetia and neighboring Dagestan that border Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.