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Russian Journalist Gunned Down

by BooMan Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 12:26:49 AM EST

As bad as things are getting in this country at least they are not this bad:

Anna Politkovskaya, the veteran Russian journalist and author who made her name as a searing critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya, was found dead on Saturday in her apartment building, shot in the head with a pistol, the authorities and her colleagues said.

Ms. Politkovskaya, 48, was a journalist with few equals in Russia. She was a special correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and had become one of the country’s most prominent human rights advocates.

In recent years, as the Russian news media faced intensifying pressure under the administration of President Vladimir V. Putin, she maintained her outspoken stance. And she became an international figure who often spoke abroad about a war she called “state versus group terrorism.”

She was a strident critic of Mr. Putin, whom she accused of stifling civil society and allowing a climate of official corruption and brutality.

She was found dead by a neighbor shortly after 5 p.m. A Makarov 9-millimeter pistol had been dropped at her side, the signature of a contract killing, Vitaly Yaroshevsky, the deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, said in a telephone interview.


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Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
by p------- on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 12:50:22 AM EST
Any reporting from Russian media?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 03:45:27 AM EST

Nothing new for the investigation, just speculations.
by blackhawk on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 05:06:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yesterday I read somewhere that the gun had not been found, but on checking wikipedia it says that the gun (and 4 bulle shells) were found in the elevator where she was shot, next to her body). Which is it?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 05:21:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It was a 9mm pistol - leaving such a gun next to the body is a deliberate sign (or dissemblence) that it was a contract killing.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 05:25:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

According to the media, wikepedia is right. Weapon discarded (professional hit job), one shot through the heart and three shots to the head (two shots too much for a professional hit job).

It all happened on Putin's birthday, which would imply Chechen connection (hits or terrorist acts tied to some specific date).

by blackhawk on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 05:33:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It happened on Putin's birthday? That means it wasn't Putin unless this is some sort of convoluted plot along the lines of "let's do it on my birthday so that people think it can't have been me because that would be too obvious".

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 05:40:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Rumor has it that body was discovered at around 17.00 and birthday reception was at 18.00 with Putin not showing up, so if you think that it was Putin, he personally does not seem to have alibi.

As for cuo bono, theories seem to be, in order of significance:

 o Kadyrov (last Politkovskaya's investigation was into where Chechnya reconstruction money are going);
 o enemies of Kadyrov (as he is the one most likely to benefit);
 o Nevzlyn or Berezovsky (provocation and misguided attempt to create Gongadze-II);
 o "concerned" citizen (Politkovskaya was not an exactly popular journalist);

Putin does not come up, primarily because he personally is not threatened at all by Politkovskaya.

by blackhawk on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 06:11:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I don't think it was Putin, but the tone of the western press coverage seems to me to be putting the blame on him at least indirectly.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 06:13:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Let's face it: western press not so much has a problem with Putin, as with Russia.
by blackhawk on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 06:18:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Prosecutors collect evidence in Moscow reporter murder case

Seems to be a frame of the the coverage law enforcement has:


Moscow prosecutors continued Sunday an investigation into a killing of a journalist known for articles criticizing Russian authorities' actions in Chechnya.

The investigation considers the journalist's professional activity as one of the most probable causes of the crime.

Prosecutors earlier said an unknown person clad in black opened fire on Politkovskaya at 17.15 Moscow time (1:15 p.m. GMT) after apparently waiting for the reporter at an elevator to her apartment on Lesnaya Street in downtown Moscow.

They also said the killer knew an entry code to her building and was aware of her movements and time schedule during the day.

"It was a premeditated and well-planned crime," the police source said. "However, it is not clear why the killer did not destroy a surveillance camera and did not attempt to hide his face."

by blackhawk on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 07:23:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Meanwhile it seems to me this is becoming a big story today in the European media. (Top story in Google News UK, for example, and I heard a lot about Politkovskaya this morning on French public radio). Politkovskaya was known and highly respected among journalists.

(Added note: surfing Google News, it's surprising to see the different treatment: Spain, like the UK, has this as the top story; in Italy and France it's high up (as in the US); yet I can't find it at all on Google News Germany... Maybe I can't see straight..?)

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 03:59:22 AM EST
In German her name is transliterated as "Politkowskaja". Here's the Google string:

http://news.google.de/news?q=politkowskaja&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&lr=lang_de&client=firef ox-a&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&sa=N&tab=wn

The outlets seem to be giving this story only below-the-fold play, though (< Schumi).

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 06:43:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
At the time I looked this morning, I read through all the International titles and saw nothing to do with Russian journalist shot or similar. I didn't run a search for the name, so it wasn't that. Even now, the story doesn't figure on the International page. (Ie you have to search).

Mind you, I have no idea why German journalists are giving it less play. Schumi, really?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 09:43:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Schumi, of course! He's not above the fold on all outlets, but definitely several.

Interestingly, Google is turning up more Austrian outlets than German.

To be fair, a lot of German newspapers don't seem to be too heavily staffed on Sunday. Maybe this will start getting more play tonight/tomorrow.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 11:15:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
AP: Slain Reporter Was Writing Torture Story


A journalist shot to death in an apparent contract killing was about to publish a story about torture and abductions in Chechnya when she was slain, her editor said Sunday, as Russia's top prosecutor took charge of the case.

...

"We never got the article, but she had evidence about these (abducted) people and there were photographs," Novaya Gazeta's deputy editor, Vitaly Yerushensky, told Ekho Moskvy radio.

...

"These are cases of kidnappings, including one criminal case concerning an abduction personally involving Ramzan Kadyrov, a kidnapping of two people, whose photographs are now on my desk," she said in comments rebroadcast Sunday by Ekho Moskvy.

In the interview, which Ekho Mosvky said had been granted to Radio Free Europe, she said that the victims, an ethnic Russian and a Chechen, were "rounded up, kidnapped for a time and killed. Their bodies showed signs of serious torture."

...

The Interfax news agency quoted law enforcement sources as saying that investigators would include the "Chechen trail" as part of their probe into Politkovskaya's death.

Her colleagues at the hard-hitting newspaper said that they would launch their own investigation, reflecting skepticism that the official inquiry would ever find the killers.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev condemned the journalist's killing as "a blow to the entire, democratic, independent press."



Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
by marco on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 07:37:01 AM EST
At least her hell is not eternal... speaking in terms of the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs. Modern Russia certainly added new qualities to gangster rituals. Was this really a department present for Putin's birthday?

I hope my distractive allusions are not completely flattery. It is sad to live in the global medium where the only recognized excuse for survival is power.

It is reported that she was writing an article on torture in Chechnya. Qua vadis, humanity?

I recall one occiasion we discussed Politkovskaya here.

by das monde on Sun Oct 8th, 2006 at 11:32:03 PM EST
Was this really a department  present for Putin's birthday?
Russian security services are not delusional, you know.

I personally suspect it's Gongadze II - or, as was pointed out in related discussions elsewhere, Rybkin II (Ivan Rybkin was a presidential candidate in 2003 who disappeared for several days only to show up in Kiev with very strange tales; this was widely considered as preparation for his real disappearance, putting the blame on You-Know-Who, and reaping political benefits. Rybkin's campaign was encouraged by certain exiled oligarchs).

All in all, Anna Politkovskaya is probably an innocent victim in a very dark political game.

by Sargon on Mon Oct 9th, 2006 at 04:31:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This is rather troubling:
There are jitters already: A few hours after news of Politkovskaya's death became public, a worried friend sent me a link to an eerie Russian Web site that displays photographs of "enemies of the people" -- all Russian journalists and human rights activists, some quite well known. Above the pictures is each person's birth date and a blank space where, it is implied, the dates of their deaths will soon be marked. That sort of thing will make many, and probably most, Russians think twice before criticizing the Kremlin about anything.

Does anyone here know about this site?

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Mon Oct 9th, 2006 at 06:59:44 AM EST
El Pais has published anunfinished article that Politkovskaya was working on when she was killed, sourced from Novaya Gazeta. Does someone have a link to an English version (or to the original)?

RFE/RL:

The article describes the alleged torture of two unidentified men at the hands of Kremlin-backed Chechen security forces. It is accompanied by graphic video stills shot during the torture session. One photograph shows a man lying prone on the ground in a pool of blood.


Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Oct 12th, 2006 at 10:33:08 AM EST


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