October 8, 2006


Death of a Journalist in Putin’s Russia

The BBC reports that Anna Politkovskaya, a brave journalist critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been found murdered in Moscow. Politkovskaya is particularly known for her book on Putin’s Russia. Now, after many death threats, Politkovskaya has fallen victim to what was probably a contract killing.

The 48-year-old mother of two was known as a fierce critic of the Kremlin’s actions in Chechnya.

Speaking on state-owned Rossiya television, deputy prosecutor Vyacheslav Rosinsky said: “One version of her death is premeditated murder linked to the victim’s social or professional duties.”

Rossiya television quoted police who said Ms Politkovskaya had been shot three times in the body and once in the head.

A pistol and four bullet cartridges were found near her body.

[…]

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev described her killing as a savage crime, and a blow to the independent democratic press in Russia.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said “the United States is shocked and profoundly saddened by the brutal murder of independent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya”.
[…]

“Russia has lost a brave and dedicated human rights defender,” said Nicola Duckworth from the rights group Amnesty International.

[…]

“The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed for her professional activities,” Vitaly Yaroshevsky, the deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta told the Reuters news agency.

“We don’t see any other motive for this terrible crime.”

[…]

Amnesty International has called for a thorough investigation into the killing but Russian political analyst Anna Zelkina is doubtful there will be results.

“There is this series of politically motivated murders like hers,” she told the BBC.

The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) has already released a news alert.

Posted by Onnik @ 10:45 am. Filed under: Media, Freedom of Speech, Russia, Crime




7 Comments »

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  1. The BBC has an update:

    Russians remember killed reporter

    Hundreds of people have gathered in central Moscow to pay tribute to prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya - a day after she was murdered.

    They lit candles and laid flowers as they held posters describing the killing as politically-motivated.

    The 48-year-old mother of two was known as a fierce critic of the Kremlin’s actions in Chechnya.

    Her death has been widely condemned in Russia and elsewhere. But there has been no word so far from the Kremlin.

    […]

    Ms Politkovskaya was due to publish an article on torture and kidnappings in Chechnya on Monday, her Novaya Gazeta has revealed.

    […]

    Mourners - some weeping - laid flowers outside Ms Politkovskaya’s home, as hundreds gathered in Moscow’s Pushkin Square and in the Chechen capital, Grozny, to condemn the murder.

    “Don’t be silent,” said a message written on a mask one of the protesters was wearing across her mouth to highlight allegations of press freedoms in Russia.

    “The Kremlin has killed freedom of speech,” said one of the posters at Pushkin.

    Another said “Anna was killed by cannibalist state power.”

    Others blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the murder.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6031887.stm

    Contract killings are frequent in Russia, and the BBC also has more.

    The killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya bore the hallmarks of a contract killing, according to anonymous police sources interviewed by Russian media.

    […]

    If Russian media accounts are to be believed, his wages can range from a modest $100 to sums running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the target.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4801971.stm

    Comment by Onnik — October 9, 2006 @ 12:08 am

  2. Interestingly, Wikipedia refers to a protest rally staged in Moscow as a result of Anna Politkovskaya’s death and which was also used to protest the action against — and victimization of — Georgians in Russia.

    On October 8, 2006, hundreds rallied in downtown Moscow to protest the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and the recent crackdown on ethnic Georgians. [8] The demonstration was described by the Moscow-based liberal Echo of Moscow radio station as “the largest protest rally of the opposition recently held in Russia”.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya#Reaction

    Comment by Onnik — October 9, 2006 @ 12:16 am

  3. Kremlin accused over reporter death

    From Tony Halpin in Moscow

    She was a fearless critic of President Putin and chronicler of atrocities in Russia’s long war with its breakaway republic of Chechnya. One of those concerns may have cost Anna Politkovskaya her life.

    The most famous investigative journalist in Russia was shot dead by an assassin on Saturday, Mr Putin’s 54th birthday, as she stepped from the lift of her Moscow apartment building to collect shopping from her car. The murder bore the hallmarks of a contract killing.

    Ms Politkovskaya, 48, was said to have been preparing an article about torture in Chechnya for today’s edition of her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. Dmitri Moratov, the Editor-in-Chief, said: “She had important photographs. We have some of her notes and of course we will partly publish this material.” Mikhail Gorbachev, today a Novaya Gazeta shareholder, described the killing as “a blow to the entire independent press”.

    […]

    Hundreds of people gathered in Pushkin Square to light candles in her memory, many accusing the authorities of complicity. One poster read: “The Kremlin has killed freedom of speech.”

    Valeri Borshchev, of the liberal Yabloko party, said: “This is a political killing, and the authorities are mixed up in this.”

    […]

    Much of the speculation is focused on Ramzan Kadyrov, the Prime Minister of Chechnya. Mr Kadyrov became 30 on Thursday, making him eligible to become the President of the republic. That day, Ms Politkovskaya told the US-run Radio Liberty that she intended to appear as a witness in a torture and kidnap case that would implicate him. It was her “dream” to see him in the dock, she said.

    Mr Kadyrov, a protégé of Mr Putin, controls a private militia. He denies involvement in torture, but Ms Politkovskaya told her interviewer that he was a “Stalin of our times”.

    Mr Kadyrov expressed regret at the news of her death “even though her articles on Chechnya did not always have an objective character”, the Itar-Tass agency reported.

    Alexei Malashenko, of the Carnegie Centre in Moscow, told The Times that the murder could have been ordered by somebody determined to block Mr Kadyrov’s rise. He did not rule out involvement by Russian security services.

    Mr Putin had in the past supported his candidacy but had grown lukewarm towards him, Mr Malashenko said. “I don’t believe this was intended as a present for Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday because the assassination creates another obstacle for him to become President. Now everybody will point the finger at him,” he said. “It will allow Putin to say to Kadyrov that there are all these rumours and he has to step back. Anna Politkovskaya wrote about Chechnya all the time and I did not see any great threat.”

    According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Ms Politkovskaya is the twelfth journalist to die in a contract-style killing since Mr Putin came to power.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2395002,00.html

    Comment by Onnik — October 9, 2006 @ 1:14 pm

  4. WHY IS PUTIN SILENT?

    09 October, 2006

    The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) are calling upon Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leading Russian officials to denounce the murder of Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot on 7 October.

    “What signal is being sent to the Russian people and the international community, that after two days no official has reacted to this crime?” asked Ludmilla Alexeyeva, the chief of the Moscow Helsinki Group and former President of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.

    The IHF and the MHG are concerned that the murder will further intimidate independent journalism in Russia, which has already been reduced under the current presidential administration.

    “The silence of President Putin suggests an attitude of complicity, or of indifference. No one can accept that, after the country’s leading media critic of the government has been murdered, apparently by a professional assassin, he keeps silent,” Mr. Fischer stated.

    http://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&iid=41794

    Comment by Onnik — October 9, 2006 @ 7:55 pm

  5. Reporter’s death ‘tragic’ - Putin

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the murder of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya as “tragic”.

    In his first response to Saturday’s shooting in Moscow, Mr Putin promised a thorough investigation.

    He made the comments to US President George Bush during a telephone conversation, a Kremlin spokesman said.

    Ms Politkovskaya was a fierce critic of Mr Putin - and in particular his policies in Chechnya.

    She had accused Russian security forces there of abusing human rights.

    […]

    The BBC’s Emma Simpson in Moscow says Ms Politkovskaya’s fellow journalists believe her murder has dealt a severe blow to what remains of press freedom in Russia.

    She was found shot dead in a lift at her block of flats. Grainy CCTV footage shows a man in a baseball cap following her inside just before the shooting.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6035103.stm

    Comment by Onnik — October 10, 2006 @ 12:05 am

  6. “An attitude of complicity”? What a load of baseless and suggestive tripe.

    She was a journalist that frequently warmed up to people like Basayev just to take punches at Putin’s Chechnya policies. Sounds like foreign interest to me, rather than a pursuit of Liberty.

    It’s more likely that she was dusted off by the people working the same angle in an attempt to escalate hysteria about lack of freedoms in Russia. Rather than one of Putin’s croneys, because over the last few years her status amongst Russians was becoming more of a hiderance to anti-government criticism. She was a caricature of the liberal perspective in Russia.

    Comment by Esoteric — October 11, 2006 @ 2:41 am

  7. Global Voices has more on Anna Politkovskaya’s murder at:

    http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/10/08/russia-anna-politkovskayas-murder/

    Comment by Onnik — October 11, 2006 @ 8:54 am

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