(Russian Journalist) Anna Politkovskaya Murdered in Moscow

Grani.ru ^ | October 7th, 2006

[struwwelpeter]

Anna Politkovskaya, the famous journalist and political commentator from Novaya Gazeta was killed in Moscow. This was reported by Novaya Gazeta's chief editor Dmitri Muratov to the radio station Echo of Moscow.

The murder occurred around 5 in the evening on Lesnaya Street, where Politkovskaya lived. An unknown man in dark clothing shot her with a pistol.

A police source reported to Interfax that a neighbor of the journalist found her body in the elevator. Police also found a discarded Makarov pistol and four empty cartridges.

Politkovskaya's home is now cordoned off by the police, reported ITAR-TASS. The police are questioning residents, trying to find out if anyone heard the shots or saw any suspicious characters in the stairwell.

According to Moscow prosecutor Yuriy Semin, a criminal case has been opened. Police are looking for a young man, slightly taller than average, with a thin body build. He may be wearing a dark baseball cap.

Igor Yakovenko, the general secretary of the Russian Journalists Union told Echo of Moscow that Politkovskaya was an absolutely fearless individual. Without fail, she was 'number one' in investigating dangerous subjects, and the took on even the most challenging problems.

Politkovskaya was threatened one several occasions. In September of 2001 she published an article in Novaya Gazeta, titled 'The Missing People', which discussed the fate of Chechen Zelimhan Murdalov, who was arrested in Chechnya by the Hanty-Mansiysk special police early in 2001, then later disappeared. Afterwards the journalist began to receive theatening emails from a certain 'Cadet'. 'Cadet' was the nickname of Sergei Lapin, an officer of the Hanty-Mansiysk special police, and the officer who questioned Murdalov after his arrest. Lapin was later arrested, but the charges were dropped.

In September of 2004, while the tragic events in the Beslan school were taking place, Anna Politkovskaya tried to fly to Beslan. As Politkovskaya said, she was "removed from the field" so that she could not offer her plan to remedy the situation. (Struwwelpeter note: she was alleged to have been poisoned while waiting for her flight from Rostov.)

Politkovskaya worked as a commentator for Novaya Gazeta since 1999. Several times she travelled to combat zones and refugee camps in Dagestan, as well as Ingushetia and Chechnya. In addition, Politkovskaya worked in human rights: she assisted the mothers of dead soldiers in court, investigated corruption in the Russian ministry of defense and in the headquarters of the unified federal forces in Chechnya. Politkovskaya's last article in Novaya Gazeta, "Punitive agreement", described the composition and activitives of the Chechen forces, which fight on the side of federal forces.

07.10.2006 17:50

[ASOC]

Very believable even for this Western mind, after all, I live in Alaska - with much the same difference in "quality of life", but without the mindset (as much).

Alcohol is a very serious problem in AK, and the bush communities (some are just tiny villages, for truth to be known) with harsh living conditions are remote, no roads even. Alaskan villages for the most part do have schools, telephone connections (and Internet) to the Outside and at least some electricity - which can explain some of the bitterness seen.

[struwwelpeter]

Regarding life in the villages east of the Urals, here's an interesting article for you:

FEARLESS HUMILITY

Englishman Michael in the Siberian village of Dubinka

[struwwelpeter]

I wouldn't mind a bottle myself :-)

I'd trade half a bottle of honey-pepper Nemirov and some sunflower seed candy!

[MarMema]

Eurasia Deli House
25650 102nd Place Southeast
Kent, WA 98030-6410
(253) 520-0870

They speak only Russian but that won't be a problem for you.

Very large selection of Georgian wines. Some Borzomi as well. But my favorite is Nabeglavi.
I would nearly kill to be able to buy it here. I was very addicted to drinking it while in Georgia. It is extremely yummy stuff.

[kalee]

ping

[MarMema]

if you find some of this then we can talk about serious trading.

I mean this stuff is very healthy and I believe the high intake of mineral water in Georgia is what gives them such long lifespans. And perhaps wine, and maybe all the walking too.

[Timedrifter]

She was a well known terrorist supporter. I can easily see how she made many enemies in her country for her pro-terrorist agenda. Even if they find the killer, I doubt any jury in Russia would convict no matter the evidence. She makes Michael Moore seem like a super patriot.

[Sergei_DV]

Makarov pistol was and now is offical weapon of every officer in army and police. I had one during my service. There where practically no pistols of other types in use.

[Sergei_DV]

It is secret of Polysheenell. Chechnya war was Beresovsky's golden mine. And rumours were, some people from Kremlin were involved. Many millions of dollars of budget money where stolen with false cheques from Cechnya.
Besides, London participated, and Saudi Arabia. All was so entangled, nobody can know all truth.
Putin is last man, interested in killing Politkowskaya. All her disclosures did no harm to his rating. Besides, he has possibilites so arrange death of his enemies, that it will look as of natural cause. Surely it is show of Putin's enemy. May be Berezovsky is behind it.

[Sergei_DV]

This motorbiker have not seen Yakutia(Sakha). During Yeltsin presidency there was humanitarian catastrophe. His gang robbed country, people died as flies in autumn. Alfred Koh, head of department of federal property, who handed most profitable state's assets to bunch of his cronies, gloated openly, that Russia is finished off, that it is not need to nobody. Oligarhs did not created nothing sufficient, they are parasites, they suck dry bleed out of Russia. All vital infrastructure degrades, Chubais main Yeltsin's privatizer, and head of Russian energy system, says, that this winter many regions will have deficit of electricity and heating.
From 1940th methods of genocide were modernized. There is no need in concentration camps anymore, it is enough to destruct economy and social programs of certain regions. 90% of Russian finances and their owners are in Moscow.
Putin alleviated a little situation, and many people believe, that it is main reason of West's hatred to Russia.

[struwwelpeter]

From tomorrow's Novaya Gazeta:

ANYA

Anya



On Saturday, October 7th,
Anna Politkovskaya,
correspondent of Novaya Gazeta
was killed in the stairwell of her home

        She was beautiful, and through the years became only more beautiful. Do you do know why? At first we merely receive our countenance from God, and then the rest we make of it ourselves - in the way that we live.
       Still, they say that in maturity the soul begins to appear on face. Her soul was beautiful.
       She was feminine. She knew how to laugh and joke and cry from injustice. Any injustice - no matter with respect to whom - she took as her personal enemy, and she fought it with all her strength.
       She was amazing courageous, much more courageous than those many macho types in their armored jeeps, surrounded by bodyguards.
       They threatened her, they tried to intimidate her, and arranged shadows and searches. She was arrested in Chechnya by "our own" airborne forces, and they threatened to shoot her. They poisoned her when she flew to Beslan. She clawed her way back to life, and, though afterwards she was never really as healthy as before, her conscience was all the stronger.
       Many people, even well-wishers of Novaya Gazeta, now and then said: "Well, your Politkovskaya - she's too much already..." Not too much! She always wrote the truth. It is another matter that this truth was frequently too terrible, that many people's consciences refused to accept it. And so, as a protective reaction, they said she was "too much already." Sometimes even our editorial staff.
       For the average person, probably, the most difficult thing is to turn away from a terrible fact. But, if we were to look evil directly in the eye, it cannot remain; it will pass. Anya looked evil directly in the eye, and, perhaps, she remained the conqueror in the worst situations. Perhaps she remained alive where her lowered eyes would have meant her death.
       For us she is still alive. We will be never accept the death of our Anya. Whoever undertook this brutal murder - in the center of Moscow, in broad daylight, we ourselves will search for the killers. We have a good idea where they can be located...
       In Europe, and in America, right now the question is being discussed: what is the state of the independent media in Russia? Novaya Gazeta in recent years has had three of its leading journalists murdered.
       Igor Domnikov. His killers - because of the efforts of honest detectives and this newspaper - were brought to court.
       Yuri Shchekochihin. Even the authorities in his homeland refused to look at the results of his autopsy... but we are continuing our investigation, and his killers will be punished.
       Now they have taken our Anya Politkovskaya... They killed not just a journalist, not just a human rights advocate, or a citizen, they killed a beautiful woman and mother.
       While there is still a Novaya Gazeta, her killers will not sleep quietly.
       
       Novaya Gazeta
        09.10.2006

You can express your condolences here:

http://politkovskaya.fastbb.ru/

[taliesin52]

I just read that she was killed on Putin's birthday. Happy Birthday to him apparantly.

[inpajamas]

A while back I was at Barnes a & Nobel and I saw this blue book 'Putin's Russia.' I picked it up and thumbed through it and it was plain to see that Russia was going back into darkness. I was surprised that the woman who wrote the book was able to do so and still be free or still be in Russia.

It looks like I don't have to be surprised anymore.

Here is the last paragraph of a review by Robert Chandler on Ann's book 'Putin's Russia'

"There are at least two good reasons for buying this book. One is that Politkovskaya only just survived a recent attempt on her life by the security services. Unless there is whole-hearted support for her from Western journalists, politicians and the general public, she is likely to be assassinated. The other is that the cataclysm that has engulfed Russia concerns us all; today's depraved and defeated Russia may be a greater danger to the world than the 'evil empire' of the past."

[spanalot]

"Supposedly a certain aid of the former mayor was directly involved."

WOWW!! That would not surprise us at all.

[spanalot]

"They would respond that I was naive if I thought the war in Chechnya had anything to do with terrorism."

HEre is a guaranteed way to ferret out the truth on any issue.

Find out what the Kremlin response is and the truth is 180 degrees the other way.

[spanalot]

Russian interests have also killed a slew of

Ukrainina reporters, too.

[Sir_Ed]

He looks more like Ed Gein!

Ed

[struwwelpeter]

From the website for expressing condolences http://politkovskaya.fastbb.ru/?0-0- 80

Ella Kesayeva (today 00:38 Moscow time)

Anna Politkovskaya was the conscience of Russian journalism. It is intolerably hard to speak about her with the word 'was'...

We mourn her together with entire world. The life of a writer, a journalist on the very peak of her of talents, has been cut short. Courageous and daring, Anna lived a special life without compromise, and because of her the peoples of the Caucasus still had faith. Frail, and, at first glance, defenseless, the power of her unlimited courage was the hope of many inhabitants of the Caucasus, a simple people who desire to live in peace. She was their mouthpiece. From her, society learned about the scandalous cruelty of the authorities show its own citizens.

Anna was not just a well-known journalist, but a human rights activist, and the pride of the whole Russian community. The motive for this crime was her courage, and the crystalline purity of her soul.

In Russia, human rights advocates pay the price for the government's talentless politics. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is a political murder. Anna simply could not remain indifferent, even though she understood better than anyone that they would have no mercy on her. She did not step back, she dashed off to save the Beslan children, and would have saved many, had they not poisoned her. Back then, in Beslan, they were frightened of her courage.

She participated in the investigation of the Beslan tragedy, of 'Nord-Ost', in exposing the crimes in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan. All the various levels of government feared these disclosures, but Anna could simply not be forced to fall silent.

Who dared carry out this this terrible crime? One way or another, Anna Politkovskaya's murder is the result of the government's cruelty and immoral policies, which more and more is revealing its true nature. It should be a matter of honor for the law-enforcement agencies to fully investigate this villainy, and find the killers. If this crime is not solved, if this crime is not investigated, and the killers never stand before a court of law, then will be abundantly clear who profits from this murder. Standing behind such great crimes, which are uninvestigated and unsolved, are the authorities, whose limitless irresponsibility generates them.

In Russia, they do not only arrest and imprison people for human rights activities, and for telling the truth; they kill them. The truth, which Anna Politkovskaya carried for the sake of peace on our long-suffering earth, we will not let them silence.

The Voice of Beslan community organization offers its condolences to all of Anna Politkovskaya's relatives and loved ones, and to all who know and who worked with her, including the staff of Novaya Gazeta. Anna was always an example of surprising purity and courage, and will remain so, forever.


The Voice of Beslan community organization

[spanalot]

"If this crime is not solved,"

The Kremlin is responsible for the liquidation of 100 million in the past century.

Does anyone really have anhy doubts as to who is responsible?

The Kremlin Genocide Culture will continue if we don't call a spade a spade.

[struwwelpeter]

I couldn't sleep, so I'm reading the condolences from the site. Mostly Russian, but several from the US and Western Europe, and even Ukraine and Belarus and Israel.

The BBC wrote:
"Dima Muratov and Novaya Gazeta team, please accept our deepest condolences on the death of Anna Politkovskaya - the journalist who was one of the truest icons of free speech in today's Russia. We are grieving with you and hope this time it will be different and the killers and, most importantly those behind the commission of the murder, will be found and brought to justice.
"Paul Jenkins and Daria Plakhova, BBC, UK."

A 'Svetlana' wrote:
"Bitter. Unmeasurable sadness. Shame for our nation, for all of us. Anna Politkovskaya was fearless. Her readers feared for her. It happened anyway. How THEY master us! How we allowed THEM to master us!
"Thank you, Anna! All these years you showed us how we should live. Thank you, and forgive us."

'Balakar' wrote:
"99% corruption, 99% stupidity, 99% lies and meanness, and 1 % honest people. They are shooting and forcing out of the country the last of this percent. My condolences to all those close to Anna. And I'm very sorry for myself and my children."

'Popovich':
"The democratic part of Moldova is in mourning, and shares your sorrow. Eternal memory."

'Leonid'
"Shame and fear for the country in which I was once born. Judging for everything, anything goes, and it's a frighteningly long time until the dawn. Hang in there, like Anna hung in there, and don't lose hope, we are with you. "Let the earth be your pillow! Leonid, Israel."

And a poem:

October 7th, 2006
In memory of Anna Politkovskaya

Don't listen for her respiration, and don't summon the physicians -
Her soul already walks barefoot along the heavenly lawn.
God takes away the good by the hands of bastards.
Idle neighbors stare out from their windows.
What is it to her, spending time in spite with praise and disparagement?
She is already away from this bloody suffering.
The quivering reflection of a candle is like a halo overhead.
And the next on the list places flowers on her coffin.

Viktor Kagan