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===Statement by colleagues and son of Politkovskaya=== |
===Statement by colleagues and son of Politkovskaya=== |
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Several journalists of [[Novaya Gazeta]] and son of Politkovskaya said that Russian state authorities prematurely arrested the suspects and leaked the information about their identities to intentionally destroy the case <ref name="Muratov"/> [http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/albac/54514/]. |
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In September 2, Chief Editor of [[Novaya Gazeta]] newspaper [[Sergey Sokolov]] commented on the investigation in the interview to [[Ekho Moskvy]]: "We have several quite intriguing theories on this account. Speaking about organizators of the murder, we don't exclude the option of disgraced oligarchs. But the version, that, say, is better developed, yet leads us to Russia." <ref name=Lenta1>[http://lenta.ru/news/2007/09/02/politkovskaya/ Novaya Gazeta seeks for organizators of Politkovskaya murder in Russia], Lenta.Ru, September 2, 2007 (in Russian)</ref> Sergey Sokolov also blamed the leakage of information about names of 11 detained people; he said it caused a real shock in the Office of Public Prosecutor: "because all what did happen around it can be called with only one term — betrayal". <ref name=Lenta1/> |
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==Awards== |
==Awards== |
Revision as of 02:23, 4 September 2007
Анна Степановна Политковская Anna Politkovskaya | |
---|---|
File:Politkovskaya.jpg | |
Born | |
Died | 7 October 2006 | (aged 48)
Occupation | Journalist |
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (Russian: Анна Степановна Политковская; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and Russian president Putin [1] [2]
Politkovskaya made her name reporting from the lawless Chechnya where many journalists and humanitarian workers have been kidnapped or killed. She was arrested and subjected to mock execution by Russian military forces in Chechnya, and she was poisoned on the way to Beslan, but survived and continued her reporting. She authored several books about Chechen wars and Putin's Russia and received numerous prestigious international awards for her work.
She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on the birthday of Vladimir Putin who was publicly accused of ordering her murder by Alexander Litvinenko, just before his own death from poisoning by radioactive polonium.
Early life
Politkovskaya was born Anna Mazepa in New York City in 1958 to Soviet Ukrainian parents, both of whom served as diplomats to the United Nations. She grew up in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow State University Department of Journalism in 1980. She defended a thesis about the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva. Politkovskaya was a citizen of both the United States of America and Russian Federation.[3]
Journalistic work
Politkovskaya worked for Izvestia from 1982 to 1993, and then as a reporter, editor of emergencies/accidents section, and assistant chief editor of Obshchaya Gazeta led by Yegor Yakovlev (1994–1999). From June 1999 to 2006, she wrote columns for the biweekly Novaya Gazeta, which news vendors often keep under the counter, if at all. She published several award-winning books about Chechnya, life in Russia,[4] and President Putin's regime,[5] most recently the book Putin's Russia.
Reports from Chechnya
Outside Russia, Politkovskaya received wide acclaim for her work in Chechnya,[6] where she frequently visited hospitals and refugee camps to interview the victims.[7]. She said about herself that she was not an investigating magistrate but somebody who describes the life of the citizens for those who cannot see it for themselves, because what is shown on television and written about in the overwhelming majority of newspapers is emasculated and doused with ideology.
Her numerous articles critical of the war in Chechnya described abuses committed by Russian military forces, by Chechen rebels, and by the Russian-backed Chechen administration led by Akhmad Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov. Politkovskaya chronicled human rights abuses and policy failures in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia's North Caucasus in several books on the subject, including A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya and A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, which painted a picture of brutal war in which thousands of innocent citizens have been tortured, abducted or killed at the hands of Chechen or federal authorities.[8] One of her most recent investigations was about alleged mass poisoning of hundreds of Chechen school children by an unknown chemical substance of strong and prolonged action, which made them completely incapable for many months.[9]
Criticism of Vladimir Putin and FSB
She wrote a book, Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy, critical of Putin's federal presidency, including his pursuit of the Second Chechen War. In this book she also accused Russian secret service FSB of stifling all civil liberties to establish Soviet-style dictatorship, but admitted that "it is we who are responsible for Putin's policies": "Society has shown limitless apathy... As the Chekists have become entrenched in power, we have let them see our fear, and thereby have only intensified their urge to treat us like cattle. The KGB respects only the strong. The weak it devours. We of all people ought to know that." She also wrote that
- "We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial - whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit." [10]
"People often tell me that I am a pessimist, that I don't believe in the strength of the Russian people, that I am obsessive in my opposition to Putin and see nothing beyond that," she opens an essay titled Am I Afraid?, finishing it - and the book - with the words: "If anybody thinks they can take comfort from the 'optimistic' forecast, let them do so. It is certainly the easier way, but it is the death sentence for our grandchildren."[11][12][13][14][15][16]
A Russian Diary
In May 2007, Random House published A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, made up of extracts from her notebook and other writing, in which describes the poisoning on the plane to Rostov-on-Don on the way to Beslan and the worsening political situation in Russia (referred to above). Because the gunman who shot her twice in the head and a third time in the shoulder at point blank range in the elevator to her apartment[17] - on President Vladimir Putin's birthday - carried out the hit 'while translation was being completed, final editing had to go ahead without her help,' translator Arch Tait writes in a note. "Who killed Anna and who lay beyond her killer remains unknown," writes the UK's Channel 4's main news anchor Jon Snow writes in the foreword to the book's UK edition. "Her murder robbed too many of us of absolutely vital sources of information and contact. Yet it may, ultimately, be seen to have at least helped prepare the way for the unmasking of the dark forces at the heart of Russia's current being. I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read."
Attempted hostage negotiations
She had, on several occasions, been involved in negotiating the release of hostages, including the Moscow theater hostage crisis of 2002 and the Beslan school hostage crisis of 2004.[18]
Her relationships with Russian state authorities
In Moscow she was not invited to press conferences or gatherings that Kremlin officials might attend, in case the organizers were suspected of harboring sympathies toward her. Despite this, many top officials allegedly talked to her when she was writing articles or conducting investigations -- according to her own article, they did talk to her, "but only when they weren't likely be observed: outside in crowds, or in houses that they approached by different routes, like spies".[19] She also claimed that the Kremlin tried to block her access to information and discredit her:[20]
- "I will not go into the other joys of the path I have chosen, the poisoning, the arrests, the threats in letters and over the Internet, the telephoned death threats, the weekly summons to the prosecutor general's office to sign statements about practically every article I write (the first question being, "How and where did you obtain this information?"). Of course I don't like the constant derisive articles about me that appear in other newspapers and on Internet sites presenting me as the madwoman of Moscow. I find it disgusting to live this way. I would like a bit more understanding."[21]
Threats to her life
While attending a conference on the freedom of press organized by Reporters Without Borders in Vienna in December 2005 Politkovskaya said: "People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think. In fact, one can even get killed for giving me information. I am not the only one in danger. I have examples that prove it."[22] She often received death threats as a result of her work;[23] including being threatened with rape and experiencing a mock execution after being arrested by the military in Chechnya.[24]
Detention in Chechnya
During a reporting trip in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by military officials in the Chechen village of Khottuni.[25] Politkovskaya followed the complaints from 90 Chechen families about "punitive raids" by federal forces. She interviewed a Chechen grandmother Rosita from a village of Tovzeni who endured a 12 day torture of beatings, electric shock and confinement in a pit. The men who arrested Rosita presented themselves as FSB employees. The torturers requested a ransom from Rosita's relatives who negotiated a smaller amount that they were able to pay. Another interviewee described killings and rapes of Chechen men in a "concentration camp with a commercial streak" near the village of Khottuni.
On her leaving the camp, Politkovskaya herself was detained, interrogated, beaten and humiliated by Russian troops [26]. She was subjected to a mock execution using a multiple-launch rocket system BM-21 Grad, then poisoned with a cup of tea that made her vomit. Her tape records were confiscated. She described her execution:
- A lieutenant colonel "with a swarthy face and dull dark bulging eyes" "said in a businesslike tone: "Let's go. I'm going to shoot you". He led me out of the tent into complete darkness. The nights here are impenetrable. After we walked for a while, he said, "Ready or not, here I come". Something burst with pulsating fire around me, screeching, roaring, and growling. The lieutenant colonel was very happy when I crouched in fright. It turned out that he had led me right under the hail rocket launcher at the moment it was fired." [27]
In 2004 Colonel-General Alexander Baranov, the commander of the Russian Kavkaz deployment mentioned by Politkovskaya's camp guide as the one who ordered captured militants to be kept in the pits, was found guilty by the European Court of Human Rights,[28] with regard to unlawful detention, violating the right to life, and the forced disappearance of a Chechen militant suspect Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev he ordered to be executed.
Poisoning
While traveling to Beslan to help in negotiations with the hostage-takers, Politkovskaya fell violently ill and lost consciousness after drinking tea. She had been reportedly poisoned,[29] with some accusing the former Soviet secret police poison facility [30].
Threats from an OMON officer
In 2001, Politkovskaya fled to Vienna, following e-mail threats claiming that the OMON police officer whom she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians was looking to take revenge. The officer, Sergei Lapin, was arrested and charged in 2002, but the case against him was closed the following year.[31][32] In 2005, Lapin was convicted and jailed for torturing and "disappearing" a Chechen civilian detainee, the case exposed by Anna Politkovskaya in the article "Disappearing People".[33]
Conflict with Ramzan Kadyrov
In 2004 Politkovskaya had a conversation with Chechnya's Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya. One of his assistants said to her [2]: "One had to shoot you in Moscow, right on the street, as used to kill people in your Moscow". Ramzan repeated:"You are the enemy. Shoot..." [34]. Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov said that on the day of her murder, Politkovskaya had planned to file a lengthy story on torture practices believed to be used by Chechen security detachments known as Kadyrovites which are loyal to Kadyrov whom she described as "Chechen Stalin of our days" in the last interview of her life. [35]
Assassination
Politkovskaya was found shot dead on Saturday, 7 October 2006 in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow. The funeral was held on Tuesday, 10 October, at 2:30 p.m., at the Troyekurovsky Cemetery. Before Politkovskaya was laid to rest, more than 1,000 people filed past her coffin to pay their last respects. Dozens of Politkovskaya's colleagues, public figures and admirers of her work gathered at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow for the funeral. No high-ranking Russian officials could be seen at the ceremony.[36] There was widespread international reaction, and Russian state authorities were blamed by some of her colleagues and friends of inability to prevent her murder or even of involvement in her assassination.
Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of sanctioning the assassination of Politkovskaya and claimed that politician Irina Hakamada warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian government [37]. In that regard, Politkovskaya asked for a piece of advice from Litvinenko. He had recommended that she escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied Litvinenko allegations that she had passed any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year ago, and that Politkovskaya blamed her and Mikhail Kasyanov of becoming Kremlin's puppets[3].
Former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky believed that the murders of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Politkovskaya, Litvinenko and others mean that FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations,[38] which were conducted in the past by the Thirteenth KGB Department.[39]
On 10 October, 2,000 demonstrators called Putin a "murderer" during his visit to Dresden, Germany.[40][41][42] Such accusations have been dismissed by Putin. He said in Dresden to reporters:
- "This journalist was indeed a sharp critic of the present Russian authorities...the degree of her influence over political life in Russia was extremely insignificant. She was well-known in journalistic circles, among human rights activists, in the West. I repeat, her influence over political life in Russian was minimal."[43] "...in my opinion murdering such a person certainly does much greater damage from the authorities’ point of view, authorities that she strongly criticized, than her publications ever did. Moreover, we have reliable, consistent information that many people who are hiding from Russian justice have been harbouring the idea that they will use somebody as a victim to create a wave of anti-Russian sentiment in the world."[44]
Investigation
First ten months of investigation
A team of investigators was led by Pyotr Garibyan. During the initial period of investigation, no any names of suspects were announced or leaked. According to more recent publications, a list of investigated but rejected suspects included OMON officer Lapin and Chechen criminals connected with warlord Movladi Baisarov who was later killed in Moscow [45] [46]
Billionaire State Duma deputy Alexander Lebedev, who bought 90 percent of Novaya Gazeta in June 2006, has posted a reward of 25 million rubles, just under US$1 million, for information leading to those responsible for Politkovskaya's death[47].
Official announcement by Russia's Prosecutor-General
On August 28, 2007, Russia's Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika [48] had a meeting with Vladimir Putin and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. During this meeting Chaika made an official announcement that
- "Our investigation has led us to conclude that only people living abroad could be interested in killing Politkovskaya." and that "Forces interested in de-stabilising the country, in stoking crisis, … in discrediting national leadership, provoking external pressure on the country, could be interested in this crime. Anna Politkovskaya knew who ordered her killing. She met him more than once." [49]
Chaika also said that Politkovskaya's killers are probably connected with murders of deputy Central Bank head Andrei Kozlov and U.S. journalist Paul Khlebnikov[50].
The person noted by Chaika as organizer of the murder was unequivocally identified in media as Boris Berezovsky [50] The statement by Chaika was supported by Andrei Lugovoi who had been indicted by British court with regard to Alexander Litvinenko poisoning. Lugovoy said that Berezovsky organized murders of Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, and the attempted murder of Yelena Tregubova [4]. The timing of the announcement, just three days before Politkovskaya's birthday on August 30, was considered as suspicious by some of her colleagues who think "that Chaika is trying to preserve Putin's image." [50]
Suspects
Ten people were arrested for Politkovskaya's killing. [51] Most notable suspects were acting lieutenant colonel of FSB Ryaguzov and an officer from Department for Fighting Organized Crime (UBOP) Sergei Khadjikurbanov. Khadjikurbanov was convicted to four years of prison in 2004. However his 4-year term was substituted for 2 years, and he was released just a month before murder of Politkovskaya. Khadjikurbanov is currently at large.
Statement by colleagues and son of Politkovskaya
Several journalists of Novaya Gazeta and son of Politkovskaya said that Russian state authorities prematurely arrested the suspects and leaked the information about their identities to intentionally destroy the case [45] [5].
Awards
- 2001: Prize of the Russian Union of Journalists
- 2001: Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism
- 2002: PEN American Center Freedom to Write Award
- 2002: International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award
- 2003: Lettre Ulysses Award
- 2003: Hermann Kesten Medal
- 2004: Olof Palme Prize (shared with Lyudmila Alekseyeva and Sergei Kovalev)
- 2005: Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media
- 2006: International Journalism Award named after Tiziano Terzani
- 2007: UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (awarded posthumously for the first time)[52]
- 2007: National Press Club/John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award (posthumous)
Bibliography
- Политковская, Анна (2003) Вторая чеченская (Second Chechen [War])
- Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya
- Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, translated by Alexander Burry and Tatiana Tulchinsky, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, ISBN 0-226-67432-0
- Politkovskaya, Anna (2004) Putin's Russia
- Politkovskaya, Anna (2007) A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia
References
- ^ World Politics Review LLC, Politkovskaya's Death, Other Killings, Raise Questions About Russian Democracy, 31 Oct 2006
- ^ "Anna Politkovskaya: Putin's Russia". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ 'Independent journalism has been killed in Russia' Becky Smith
- ^ "Her Own Death, Foretold". Politkovskaya, Anna. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "Anna Politkovskaya". Lettre Ulysss Award. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ "Anna Politkovskaya". Lettre Ulysss Award. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ Danilova, Maria (2006-10-09). "Officials: Russian Journalist Found Dead". AP.
{{cite news}}
:|access-date=
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(help) - ^ "Her Own Death, Foretold". Politkovskaya, Anna. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ What made Chechen schoolchildren ill? - The Jamestown Foundation, March 30, 2006
- ^ Poisoned by Putin Guardian Unlimited, September 9, 2004
- ^ Short biography from the 2003 Lettre Ulysses Award
- ^ Last article by Anna Politkovskaya
- ^ Obituaries: Anna Politkovskaya, The Times, 9 October 2006
- ^ "Russia's Secret Heroes", an excerpt from A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya.
- ^ "Disquiet On The Chechen Front", TIMEeurope Heroes 2003
- ^ Video - on the documenting the Chechen war as Russian journalist, PBS' Democracy on Deadline
- ^ Journalist Gives Her Life for Her Profession Oct. 09, 2006
- ^ "Murder in Moscow: The shooting of Anna Politkovskaya". The Independent. 2006-10-08. Retrieved 2007-05-19.
- ^ "Her Own Death, Foretold". Politkovskaya, Anna. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "Her Own Death, Foretold". Politkovskaya, Anna. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "Her Own Death, Foretold". Politkovskaya, Anna. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
- ^ "Trois journalistes tués le jour de l'inauguration à Bayeux du Mémorial des reporters'" (in French). Reporters Without Borders. 2006-10-07. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ Meek, James (2004-10-15). "Dispatches from a savage war". The Guardian. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ Her Own Death, Foretold October 15, 2006
- ^ How the heroes of Russia turned into the tormentors of Chechnya February 27, 2001
- ^ "...the young officers tortured me, skillfully hitting my sore spots. They looked through my children pictures, making a point of saying what they would like to do to the kids. This went on for about three hours. ("A small corner of hell", page 52).
- ^ After the mock execution Russian lieutenant colonel said her: "Here's the banya. Take off your clothes". Seeing that his words had no effect, he got very angry: "A real lieutenant colonel is courting you, and you say no, you militant bitch". Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, translated by Alexander Burry and Tatiana Tulchinsky, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, ISBN 0-226-67432-0
- ^ Bazorkina vs. Russia, a judgement by European Court of Human Rights, 27 July 2006.
- ^ "Russian journalist reportedly poisoned en route to hostage negotiations". IFEX. 2004-09-03. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ Sixsmith, Martin (2007-04-08). "The Laboratory 12 poison plot". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
- ^ "Russians remember killed reporter". BBC. 2006-10-08. Retrieved 2006-10-09.
- ^ Danilova, Maria (2006-10-09). "Officials: Russian Journalist Found Dead". AP.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Siberian police 'obstructing Politkovskaya murder inquiry' November 6, 2006
- ^ Russian: «Тебя надо было расстрелять еще в Москве, на улице, как там у вас в Москве расстреливают… Тебя надо было расстрелять...». Рамзан вторит: «Ты — враг… Расстрелять… Ты — враг…"
- ^ "Politkovskaya Gunned Down".
- ^ "Thousands mourn Russian journalist". Reuters. 2006-10-10.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (In Russian and English)
- ^ http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2006/11/20/20061120204213113.html
- ^ *Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7
- ^ "Putin mit "Mörder, Mörder"-Rufen empfangen" (in German). Die Welt. 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ "Putin in Dresden mit "Mörder"-Rufen empfangen" (in German). Der Spiegel. 2006-10-10. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ "Putin faces 'murderer' taunt as journalist is buried". Telegraph. 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2006-10-11.
- ^ Chechnya: Politkovskaya Mourned As 'Last Hope' October 11, 2006
- ^ Meetings with Representatives of various Communities October 10, 2006
- ^ a b Politkovskaya case: day of open doors. Investigation secrecy divulged just after first arrests of the suspected done by Vyacheslav Izmailov, Dmitry Muratov, Ilya Politkovsky and Sergey Sokolov, Novaya Gazeta, September 3, 2007
- ^ "the former mayor of Grozny Bislan Gantamirov came to the Novaya Gazeta office. He said that three groups of killers were acting in Moscow. One of them was hunting after him, the second after Baisarov and the third worked about Politkovskaya." He gave the names of the assassins according to newspaper editor Muratov.
- ^ Echo of Moscow radio, [1], 08.10.2006 Template:Ru icon
- ^ Chaika was appointed to his current position by Putin on June 23, 2006
- ^ SMH.com, Russia hints exile linked to murder
- ^ a b c Russia: Politkovskaya's Colleagues Dispute Official Investigation, By Brian Whitmore, RFE/RL, August 28, 2007
- ^ 10 Arrested in Russian Reporter's Death Aug 27, 2007
- ^ World Press Freedom Prize 2007
External links
- Book Festival readings, Anna Politkovskaya at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Audio Recordings and Transcriptions 2004-05 (Russian translated to English, streaming audio)