It's ten months since Anna Politkovskaya - special correspondant for the Russian liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, relentless critic of Vladimir Putin's Russia, and referred to as "Russia's lost moral conscience" - was shot dead close to her apartment in Moscow. Today, Russian authorities announced that they have evidence the killing was carried out by a Moscow criminal gang led by an ethnic Chechen crime boss. They have arrested ten people, including Lt Col Pavel Ryaguzov, an FSB (Federal Security Service) officer.-
To many readers of Politkovskaya's work, it will come as no surprise to hear Yuri Chaika, Russia's Prosecutor General, say that, "[sic] the evidence pointed to a conspiracy planned outside Russia." He went on to say, according to the BBC, "The individuals interested in eliminating Politkovskaya can only be ones living beyond Russia's borders." But why 'can only'? I suppose one reason might be that no one in Russia would dare point the finger at the motherland - not unless they wanted that finger broken off. Politkovskaya dared and was killed. Litvinenko dared and was killed.
-
Chaika also said - again, according to the BBC - "Above all, people and structures interested in destabilising the country, changing its constitutional order, in stoking a crisis in Russia...could
gain from this crime," ludicrously implying that the Kremlin itself would have nothing to gain from silencing Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia, published in English translation in 2004, tells a story of a corrupt and brutal army, where private's are treated like expendable dogs, where the relatives of dead soldiers are utterly ignored by the state, 'where beating the shit out of someone is the basic method of training...Incidentally, this is how Putin described the way he would deal with enemies within Russia when he first ascended his Kremlin throne.' And yet, in spite of this, and in spite Politkovskaya's assertion that Putin is a 'power-hungry product of his own history and unable to prevent himself from stifling civil liberties at every turn', we're told that Putin's Russia would have nothing to gain from Politkovskaya's murder? This simply makes no sense.
gain from this crime," ludicrously implying that the Kremlin itself would have nothing to gain from silencing Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia, published in English translation in 2004, tells a story of a corrupt and brutal army, where private's are treated like expendable dogs, where the relatives of dead soldiers are utterly ignored by the state, 'where beating the shit out of someone is the basic method of training...Incidentally, this is how Putin described the way he would deal with enemies within Russia when he first ascended his Kremlin throne.' And yet, in spite of this, and in spite Politkovskaya's assertion that Putin is a 'power-hungry product of his own history and unable to prevent himself from stifling civil liberties at every turn', we're told that Putin's Russia would have nothing to gain from Politkovskaya's murder? This simply makes no sense. -
According to the BBC, Dmitry Muratov, chief editor of the Novaya Gazeta, said that the investigations findings were "very convincing and professional." In the Guardian, Vyacheslav Izmailov, a friend of Politkovskaya's and a columnist of the Novaya Gazeta, said that whilst few details of the arrests had been made public, he believed that the trail 'appeared' to lead to Chechnya. However the naming amongst those arrested of an FSB officer seems to me to be a curious kind of admission in the current climate.
-
Alexander Litvinenko was investigating Anna Politkovskaya's murder when he was poisoned in London last November.
No comments:
Post a Comment