In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Links: Developments in the Russian police investigation
Reactions: Evaluating the Russian police
Opinion: Skepticism in the Russian and American press
Key Players: Politkovskaya and Putin
Background: Dangers facing the Russian press
History: Chechnya and Russia
Related Links: Politkovskaya's last book; Chechen capital Grozny
Update: Police say they have identified the killer
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Suspect Charged in Case of Murdered Russian Journalist
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Accusations of a cover-up follow the indictment of a former Chechen official in connection with the ’06 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter known for her Chechen war coverage and opposition to Putin.
30-Second Summary
21 Sept.—Russian authorities charged Shamil Burayev with complicity in the murder of Politkovskaya, a journalist on the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Burayev once governed the Chechen district of Achkhoi-Martan and ran unsuccessfully for the Chechen presidency.
The principal witness against Burayev is Pavel Ryaguzov, an agent for the FSB, the Russian secret service (formerly the KGB). Ryaguzov attests that, acting independently, he found Politkovskaya’s address on FSB files and passed that information on to Burayev so that he could organize the murder.
Despite this latest development, and the arrest of 10 suspects in August, suspicions remain in the international press that the Kremlin may be implicated in the killing.
One source of skepticism is Reporters Without Borders, an organization working globally for press freedom. It points to a number of holes in the Russian investigators’ case.
For example, Politkovskaya was researching an article, presumably an exposé, on one of Burayev’s enemies at the time she was shot on her apartment block stairwell. Killing her would therefore, it is assumed, conflict with Burayev’s own interests.
In addition, there are doubts as to whether Burayev had the resources to oversee and fund a crime that, according to police reports, involved two separate surveillance teams.
In The Moscow Times, journalist and novelist Yulia Latynina writes that the use of such intensive surveillance is “absolutely not the style of hired killers; it is much more the modus operandi of a government law enforcement agency.”
The ongoing police investigation is likely to make more headlines in the next few days with the approach of Oct. 7, the first anniversary of Politkovskaya's death.
Burayev once governed the Chechen district of Achkhoi-Martan and ran unsuccessfully for the Chechen presidency.
The principal witness against Burayev is Pavel Ryaguzov, an agent for the FSB, the Russian secret service (formerly the KGB). Ryaguzov attests that, acting independently, he found Politkovskaya’s address on FSB files and passed that information on to Burayev so that he could organize the murder.
Despite this latest development, and the arrest of 10 suspects in August, suspicions remain in the international press that the Kremlin may be implicated in the killing.
One source of skepticism is Reporters Without Borders, an organization working globally for press freedom. It points to a number of holes in the Russian investigators’ case.
For example, Politkovskaya was researching an article, presumably an exposé, on one of Burayev’s enemies at the time she was shot on her apartment block stairwell. Killing her would therefore, it is assumed, conflict with Burayev’s own interests.
In addition, there are doubts as to whether Burayev had the resources to oversee and fund a crime that, according to police reports, involved two separate surveillance teams.
In The Moscow Times, journalist and novelist Yulia Latynina writes that the use of such intensive surveillance is “absolutely not the style of hired killers; it is much more the modus operandi of a government law enforcement agency.”
The ongoing police investigation is likely to make more headlines in the next few days with the approach of Oct. 7, the first anniversary of Politkovskaya's death.
Headline Links: Developments in the Russian police investigation
Aug '06—Russian police arrested 10 suspects in connection with the murder of Politkovskaya, 2 of whom were later released. According to the BBC, Chief Prosecutor Yuri Chaika said that “there were indications that the murder plot had been masterminded abroad, by people interested in destabilizing Russia.”
Source: The BBC
Reactions: Evaluating the Russian police
Reporters Without Borders reports on the reaction from two current Chechen officials to the charge against Burayev. According to RWB, the head of the Chechen district once governed by Burayev said that “Burayev’s interests never conflicted with Politkovskaya’s.” In addition, RWB relates that “the president of the Chechen Council of State, Malik Saidullaev, questioned that Burayev had the required contacts and resources to organize a murder.”
Source: Reporters Without Borders
Opinion: Skepticism in the Russian and American press
Journalist and novelist Yulia Latynina’s skeptical account of recent developments in the Russian police investigation appeared in both The Moscow Times (sister publication to the Times of London) and The St. Petersburg Times. Latynina detects a number of weaknesses in the police reports. Why, she asks, did Burayev need to access FSB files to trace a journalist whose whereabouts could be easily uncovered? Latynina’s conclusion is that while “Putin is in office we will never find out who ordered Politkovskaya’s murder.”
Source: The Moscow Times
Sept. 3—The New York Times responded to news that Russian authorities had arrested 10 suspects in connection with Politkovskaya’s murder. In an op-ed, the Times judged it suspicious that the plot being uncovered “happens to confirm what Mr. Putin himself suggested only three days after Ms. Politkovskaya’s murder … that there were fugitives from Russian justice bent on sacrificing somebody ‘in order to create a wave of anti-Russian feeling in the world.” The Times writes, “Forgive us if we remain skeptical. There’s just too much of the ‘usual suspects’ here.”
Source: The New York Times
Writing shortly after 10 suspects were rounded up in August, The Wall Street Journal judges that “it may be that investigators have indeed identified the guilty parties.” The Journal goes on to deduce that “the inclusion of some mid-level Russian security officers among the jailed gives the charges a hint of believability.” However, the prosecutor-general’s “sweeping dismissal of even the possibility that someone within Russia ordered the killing undermines his credibility in equal part.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Key Players: Politkovskaya and Putin
Anna Politkovskaya
Born in 1958, raised in America and Russia, and the mother of two children, Politkovskaya was best known for her coverage of the conflicts in Chechnya. Chechen separatists have fought Russia for independence since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Born in 1958, raised in America and Russia, and the mother of two children, Politkovskaya was best known for her coverage of the conflicts in Chechnya. Chechen separatists have fought Russia for independence since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Politkovskaya visited Chechnya more than 40 times and, according to Reporters Without Borders, "was the only Russian journalist who reported on the second Chechnya war," which dates from 1999 and continues to this day.
Source: Reporters Without Borders
Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in 1952 in Leningrad. For almost two decades, he worked in the KGB, the Russian secret service, and was elected president of the Russian Federation in 1999. He is now serving his second term as president. The Russian constitution limits the president to a maximum of two terms, but there has been much press speculation that Putin may seek to hold on to the reins of power after his presidential tenure has ended.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born in 1952 in Leningrad. For almost two decades, he worked in the KGB, the Russian secret service, and was elected president of the Russian Federation in 1999. He is now serving his second term as president. The Russian constitution limits the president to a maximum of two terms, but there has been much press speculation that Putin may seek to hold on to the reins of power after his presidential tenure has ended.
Background: Dangers facing the Russian press
Between 1996 and 2006, Russia was second only to Iraq in terms of the number of journalists killed, according to a March 2007 report titled "Killing the Messenger."
Source: The International News Safety Institute
Sept. 2006—The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists published a report stating that 13 Russian journalists had been murdered since Putin came to power. Only three of those cases resulted in arrests and trials. "But, even then, prosecutions have fallen short of convictions,” reports the committee.
Source: The Committee to Protect Journalists
March 2007—Ivan Safronov died when he fell from a fifth-floor window in his apartment block. Safronov was a journalist on the independent Russian newspaper Kommersant. Allegedly, at the time of his death he was investigating Russian arms deals with Syria and Iran. According to British newspaper The Guardian, his colleagues scorned claims that Safronov committed suicide.
Source: The Guardian
History: Chechnya and Russia
Politkovskaya established a reputation as an uncompromising journalist with her reporting from the front lines of the second Chechen war (1999–). In an interactive introduction from British newspaper The Guardian, the history of the Chechen separatist movement is traced to Russia’s conquering of Chechnya in the nineteenth century. At the end of the World War II, Stalin “deported the entire Chechen population—men, women and children—to Siberia. Many died and none was allowed back for a decade.” In 1992, after the collapse of the USSR, Chechen President Dudayev demanded total independence from Russia.
Source: The Guardian
Related Links: Politkovskaya's last book; Chechen capital Grozny
'A Russian Diary'
Anna Politkovskaya’s diaries, covering the period from the Russian parliamentary elections in Dec. '03 to Aug. '05, were published posthumously in 2007. Publishers Weekly described "A Russian Diary" as recording “with dismal and sardonic exactitude the encroaching power of the State.”
Anna Politkovskaya’s diaries, covering the period from the Russian parliamentary elections in Dec. '03 to Aug. '05, were published posthumously in 2007. Publishers Weekly described "A Russian Diary" as recording “with dismal and sardonic exactitude the encroaching power of the State.”
Grozny
The Chechen capital of Grozny was, as recently as early 2006, “less a city than rows of shattered buildings overlooking cesspools,” according to a Sept. '07 New York Times report. Since then, Grozny has been the beneficiary of an impressive reconstruction program. The building initiative is part of a two-stage strategy to defeat the Chechen rebellion: “extraordinary violence, followed by extraordinary investment,” as the Times puts it. The downside of this plan has been, writes the Times, that “allegations of human rights abuses by both Russia and its local allies have been largely ignored.”
Source: The New York Times
Update: Police say they have identified the killer
Oct. 9—Russian police announced that they have identified Politkovskaya’s killer, whom they have declined to name, according to The St. Petersburg Times. They also stated that they do not yet know who ordered the killing but believe her shooting was politically motivated and linked to the ’04 killing of U.S.-born Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes.
Source: The St. Petersburg Times
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