Russian Reporter Murdered, page 1

posted on Oct, 7 2006 @ 08:17 PM

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Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment building. Anna was an Russian journalist who covered the Chechen war. Her stories often focused on injured soliders and civilians.

www.cnn.com
A Russian journalist known for her critical coverage of the war in Chechnya was shot to death Saturday in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, in a killing prosecutors believe could be connected to her investigative work.

Anna Politkovskaya was a tireless reporter who had written a critical book on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops.

Russia has become one of the deadliest places for journalists. Twenty-three journalists were killed in the country between 1996 and 2005, many in Chechnya, according to CPJ. At least 12 have been murdered in contract-style killings since Putin came to power, Simon said.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The questions that anyone has to ask is the following.
Was the Russian government some how connected to her murder ?
Was this the first attemped on her life ?
Somehow I think that there will always be question marks hanging over Annas death. We can only hope that Anna will serve as an role model and an inspiration for other Russian journalists.

Journalists should never have to risk there lives to report the news unless they choose to go into the likes of war zones.

Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk
news.bbc.co.uk

[edit on 1-12-2006 by UM_Gazz]

Hellmutt

posted on Oct, 9 2006 @ 07:56 AM

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She was due to publish an article today about torture and kidnappings in Chechnya. Moscow-backed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov is pointed out as the main suspect for being behind Anna Politkovskaya's killing, but it could also be someone trying to discredit him...

MosNews: Russian Journalists Skeptical of Probe Into Anna Politkovskaya’s Killing

09.10.2006

Leading Russian journalists, international journalism watchdogs and Western governments condemned the killing of Anna Politkovskaya and demanded a thorough probe into the attack though many doubt that those behind the killing will be brought to justice.

Politkovskaya’s editors said she had been due to publish an investigative article on Monday about torture and kidnappings in Chechnya based on witness accounts and photos of tortured bodies.

Suspicion in the killing of Politkovskaya, whose body was found in the elevator in her apartment building on Saturday, has fallen on the Moscow-backed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Politkovskaya, one of the few Russian journalists writing about widespread human rights abuses in Chechnya, had been a persistent critic of Kadyrov, whose security forces are alleged to be involved in widespread abductions and torture. Novaya Gazeta said on its Web site it believed her murder was either revenge by Kadyrov or an attempt to discredit him.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Hellmutt

posted on Oct, 9 2006 @ 09:55 AM

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It might be a coincident, but she was killed on Putin's birthday...

Hellmutt

posted on Oct, 9 2006 @ 09:08 PM

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...which was also two days after Ramzan Kadyrov's 30th birthday, which enabled him to now legally stand for the post of President of Chechnya.

RFE/RL: Anna Politkovskaya's Last Interview

October 9, 2006

Anna Politkovskaya's last interview was with RFE/RL's Russian Service, just two days before she was gunned down in Moscow. The date of the interview, October 5, was also the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's prime minister, and it was a particularly significant birthday: now aged 30, he can legally stand for the post of president. Kadyrov was the target of much of Politkovskaya's most critical reporting, and in this interview Politkovskaya expresses her forthright view of a man she calls "a Stalin of our times," dreams of a day when Kadyrov will stand trial, and talks about the subjects of much of her work -- the victims of torture and abduction in Chechnya.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Hellmutt

posted on Oct, 10 2006 @ 11:40 AM

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Anna Politkovskaya was buried in Moscow today...

BakuTODAY.net: 'Burying the truth': thousands attend funeral of Russian journalist

10/10/2006

Thousands have attended the funeral of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow, many fearing that with her they were also burying the last vestiges of media freedom in Russia.

Attending the ceremony were the Norwegian, Swedish and US ambassadors, as well as a Who's Who of Russian human rights activists, but there were no high-ranking government officials.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Alex Dude

posted on Oct, 10 2006 @ 12:17 PM

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The Russian media is making a bigger deal out of this incident than the western media. Even Putin has spoken on this matter.

Actually, her murder would not have been hired by him or the Russian government. Why? Because her murder made a more severe blow to the country's image than the coming out of her book would have had. There are other people who would've had a greater advantage in her murder.

You can't blame the Russian government on this one.

Nygdan

posted on Nov, 30 2006 @ 10:20 PM

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Now in addition to this reporter being assassinated, and the guy who was researching her assasination being assasinated, yet another critic of the russian government has had an attempted assasination attempt (no not Yuschenko, ANOTHER critic).
Russian Opposition Leader Poisoned

Has anyone been able to research her assasination recently?

Hellmutt

posted on Dec, 1 2006 @ 05:25 AM

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Originally posted by Nygdan

Has anyone been able to research her assasination recently?

Litvinenko was, but he got interupted.

So, we need another volunteer...

Muaddib

posted on Dec, 2 2006 @ 12:23 AM

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Originally posted by Alex Dude
.......................
You can't blame the Russian government on this one.

and why not exactly?...

What if she had some evidence which pointed the Russian government comitting atrocities against Chechen civilians?... that's not possible?...

If Putin, and the Russian government were quiet about this and wouldn't have made statements denying their involvement, then that would have been a clear indication that the Russian government was behind this,

Tthe smart thing to do for the Russian government was to commit the crime and then act as if they were not the ones behind it.

Too many people who opose Putin and the Russian regime have found similar fates, it is too much of a coincidence.

Muaddib

posted on Dec, 4 2006 @ 08:40 AM

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Here is another article, this one by the Prague, which talks about Anna Politkovskaya's muder and the situation in Russia. Some of the points told in the following article have already been mentioned in this thread, but they are worth noting.

0n Oct. 7, Putin's birthday, Russian journalist and mother of two children Anna Politkovskaya was shot four times in the elevator of her building in Moscow in a political assassination. She had been planning to release a story the next day in one of the few remaining independent papers, Novaya Gazeta, outlining torture practices used by Chechen authorities, who function as Russia's henchmen.

Politkovskaya received eight international awards for her passionate work reporting on Russian human rights abuses in Chechnya, including the Prize of the Russian Union of Journalists as well as the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Recognition.

At a time when the West was fawning over Putin, Politkovskaya was quick to point out the truth in her book Putin's Russia, in which she outlined the systematic eradication of opposition that Putin was and is organizing. In 2001, she fled to Vienna to escape retribution from Sergei Lapin, a police officer whom she accused of atrocities. Though he was arrested a year later, the case against Lapin was — in typical Russian fashion — closed the following year. In 2005 Lapin was again caught, and this time jailed for torture, as a result of his exposure by Politkovskaya in the article "The Disappearing People."

Politkovskaya received constant death threats regarding her activities, and survived one attempt at poisoning on her flight to intercede in the Beslan school siege in 2004. Though her style bothered many people, her stories always stood firm.

Instead of swiftly condemning the incident, it took President Putin three days to react to the killing. Putin claimed that Politkovskaya's influence was only "very minor" and then went on to lie in stating that the killing was not political. He did call it shocking, stating that her killers must be brought to justice. In true form, Putin noted that her killing hurt his reputation more than all previous negative criticism combined. In this, at least, Putin was right.

www.praguepost.com...

The entire article is worth reading.

[edit on 4-12-2006 by Muaddib]

Hellmutt

posted on Aug, 27 2007 @ 04:46 AM

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Breaking:

Ten people have been arrested...

ITAR-TASS: Ten people arrested in Politkovskaya murder case - Chaika

27.08.2007 - 12.43

Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika has reported to President Vladimir Putin on serious advancement in the investigation of the criminal case of murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. She was gunned down on October 7, 2006.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Hellmutt

posted on Jan, 20 2009 @ 12:12 AM

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Possibly related? A high profile murder in center of Moscow today. Meters away from the Kremlin. A double-murder in broad daylight.

Lawyer murdered in central Moscow

The lawyer of the Kungayev family, the relatives of a Chechen woman, who was murdered by a Russian army colonel, Yury Budanov, has been killed. Stanislav Markelov was shot dead in the centre of Moscow in broad daylight on Monday.

[edit on 20 Jan 2009 by Hellmutt]