Ten Held In Politkovskaya Killing

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya would have turned 49 Wednesday had she not been slain last October in the lobby of her apartment building, and protests in Moscow were planned against the lack of arrests in the case. So it was good timing by Russian authorities to announce Monday they are now holding 10 suspects in a killing that prosecutors said was arranged from outside Russia by anti-Kremlin forces who wanted to embarrass the country.

Her killing was the seemingly last straw for international media groups that charged that there were 13 contract-style  killings of Russian journalists since President Putin came to office and not one conviction. That Politkovskaya  was a Putin critic and that Putin had commented after the killing that her influence was “very minor” outraged media groups and governments around the world. Many raised suspicions about a possible Kremlin role, something that officials had always rejected out of hand, and the prosecutors made a point in their news conference of ensuring everyone understood it was really the Chechens to blame  because they didn’t like her coverage of Chechen affairs among other reasons, and in fact the trail leads to Kremlin opponents living abroad who want to discredit Russia.  Nothing to do with the Kremlin!

Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said an organized crime group headed by an ethnic Chechin was responsible and the gang included at least five serving and former law enforcement officers. And the prosecutors believe the same group may also be responsible  for two other high profile killings -- the 2004 murder of U.S. reporter Paul Klebnikov, editor of ForbesMagazine's Russian edition, and the shooting last year of central bank deputy chief Andrei Kozlov, although someone else is currently charged with that killing.

“The person who ordered the (Politkovskaya) killing is abroad,” Chaika told journalists. “Our investigation has led us to conclude that only people living abroad could be interested in killing Politkovskaya,” he said with the obvious intent of ensuring nobody accepts the Kremlin had any role. Putin received a briefing on the case earlier in the day.

Senior officers, a lieutenant colonel in Moscow's Federal Security Service (FSB) and a police major, supplied information about Politkovskaya’s movements, and three policemen were also involved, Chaika said.

Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked, commented "Naturally, it is premature to speak about the Politkovskaya murder having been solved," it said. "The people who carried this out, their helpers and the real people who ordered this, must be identified and convicted. Sergei Sokolov, deputy chief editor, said “Of  course ... we are concerned that in an election year, this crime may be used by different groups for their own aims. That, unfortunately, is our Russian illness and the way things work here." - August 28, 2007

Keywords:media in Russia,Anna Politkovskaya

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