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EspañolANNA POLITKOVSKAYA
'Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya' (; 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,[5] where she frequently visited hospitals and refugee camps to interview the victims. Officials: Russian Journalist Found Dead . 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.[4] 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.[8]
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." [9]
"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."[10][11][12][13][14][15]
''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 she 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[16] - 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.[17]
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 to be observed: outside in crowds, or in houses that they approached by different routes, like spies".[4] She also claimed that the Kremlin tried to block her access to information and discredit her:[4]
:"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."[4]
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."''[21] She often received death threats as a result of her work;[22] including being threatened with rape and experiencing a mock execution after being arrested by the military in Chechnya.[23]
Detention in Chechnya
During a reporting trip in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by military officials in the Chechen village of Khottuni.[24] 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 [25]. 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." [26]
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,[27] 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,[28] with some accusing the former Soviet secret police poison facility [29].
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.[30][31] 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".[32]
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 [1]: "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..." [33].
''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. [34]
Assassination
Main articles: Anna Politkovskaya 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.[35] 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 [36]. 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[2].
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,[37] which were conducted in the past by the Thirteenth KGB Department.[38]
On 10 October, 2,000 demonstrators called Putin a "murderer" during his visit to Dresden, Germany.[39][40][41] 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."[42] "...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."[43]
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 [44] [45]
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[46].
Official announcement by Russia's Prosecutor-General
On August 28, 2007, Russia's Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika [47] 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." [48]
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.
The person noted by Chaika as organizer of the murder was unequivocally identified in media as Boris Berezovsky [49] 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."
Suspects
Ten people were arrested for Politkovskaya's killing. [50] Most notable suspects were acting lieutenant colonel of FSB Ryaguzov and an officer from Department for Fighting Organized Crime (UBOP) Sergei Khadjikurbanov. However Ryaguzov was later released, then imprisoned again on an independent charge [5]. Khadjikurbanov was previously 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
Staff journalists of Novaya Gazeta carried out a separate investigation of Politkovskaya murder, during which they closely cooperated with the General Prosecutor's Office.
In August 30, 2007, journalists of Novaya Gazeta and son of Anna Ilya Politkovskiy have issued a statement about the ongoing investigation. In it they have claimed that not all involved people were arrested; as well as the Prosecutor's Office has yet to do lots of routine work to prove the guilt of those arrested, however Novaya Gazeta's own investigation shows that "arrested people were really involved in this crime in this or that degree".
The major issue addressed by journalists of Novaya Gazeta was the leak organized in the media, which has seriously complicated the work of investigators and could let other involved people escape. According to the journalists, "It seems that someone had a wish to make the currents list of suspected to be final and, besides, not to let solving other crimes that could possibly have been done by the arrested."
Details of the investigation were kept in secret for almost ten months, that being controlled by the chief of official investigative group and journalists of Novaya Gazeta on their side. In August 27, Prosecutor General and special service officers held press-conferences. Although that wasn't a major breech in the secrecy of the case (besides one of the arrested, lieutenant colonel of FSB Pavel Ryaguzov, being named), it triggered a snowball of journalist publications and official appearances. Two things had worsened the deal — at first, as Sergey Sokolov has mentioned in September 2 interview, "each office had people who had obtained a bit of information — and they started to sell it to journalists", the second thing was seeming involvement of some people in these structures, due to "interpenetration of crime and law enforcement bodies", internal intrigues and fear that if investigators "unraveled this tangle, then the details of many celebrated unsolved cases would be disclosed".
Considering the client of the murder of Politkovskaya, journalists of Novaya Gazeta have noted: "We do not exclude possible involvement by 'runaway oligarchs' and other characters. There are several versions of who was the client of Politkovskaya’s murder. We consider it that the client didn’t leave Russia. None of the versions is proved with evidence now and so all speculations must be stopped for the moment." Interview held by Yevgeniya Albats in September 2, 2007
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)[51]
★ 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
1. World Politics Review LLC, Politkovskaya's Death, Other Killings, Raise Questions About Russian Democracy, 31 Oct 2006
2. Anna Politkovskaya: Putin's Russia
3. 'Independent journalism has been killed in Russia' Becky Smith
4. Her Own Death, Foretold
5. Anna Politkovskaya
6. Anna Politkovskaya
7. Her Own Death, Foretold
8. What made Chechen schoolchildren ill? - The Jamestown Foundation, March 30, 2006
9. Poisoned by Putin Guardian Unlimited, September 9, 2004
10. Short biography from the 2003 Lettre Ulysses Award
11. Last article by Anna Politkovskaya
12. Obituaries: Anna Politkovskaya, ''The Times'', 9 October 2006
13. "Russia's Secret Heroes", an excerpt from ''A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya.''
14. "Disquiet On The Chechen Front", TIMEeurope Heroes 2003
15. Video - on the documenting the Chechen war as Russian journalist, PBS' ''Democracy on Deadline''
16. Journalist Gives Her Life for Her Profession Oct. 09, 2006
17. Murder in Moscow: The shooting of Anna Politkovskaya
18. Her Own Death, Foretold
19. Her Own Death, Foretold
20. Her Own Death, Foretold
21. Trois journalistes tués le jour de l’inauguration à Bayeux du Mémorial des reporters'
22. Dispatches from a savage war Meek, James
23. Her Own Death, Foretold October 15, 2006
24. How the heroes of Russia turned into the tormentors of Chechnya February 27, 2001
25. "...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).
26. 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
27. Bazorkina vs. Russia, a judgement by European Court of Human Rights, 27 July 2006.
28. Russian journalist reportedly poisoned en route to hostage negotiations
29. The Laboratory 12 poison plot Sixsmith, Martin
30. Russians remember killed reporter
31. Officials: Russian Journalist Found Dead
32. Siberian police 'obstructing Politkovskaya murder inquiry' November 6, 2006
33. 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…"
34. Politkovskaya Gunned Down
35. Thousands mourn Russian journalist
36.
Alexander Litvinenko at the Frontline Club accusing Vladimir Putin of the assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya ''(In Russian and English)''
37. http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2006/11/20/20061120204213113.html
38.
★ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'', Gardners Books (2000), ISBN 0-14-028487-7
39. Putin mit "Mörder, Mörder"-Rufen empfangen
40. Putin in Dresden mit "Mörder"-Rufen empfangen
41. Putin faces 'murderer' taunt as journalist is buried
42. Chechnya: Politkovskaya Mourned As 'Last Hope' October 11, 2006
43. Meetings with Representatives of various Communities October 10, 2006
44.
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
45. "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.
46. Echo of Moscow radio, [3], 08.10.2006
47. Chaika was appointed to his current position by Putin on June 23, 2006
48. SMH.com, Russia hints exile linked to murder
49. Russia: Politkovskaya's Colleagues Dispute Official Investigation, By Brian Whitmore, RFE/RL, August 28, 2007
50. 10 Arrested in Russian Reporter's Death Aug 27, 2007
51. World Press Freedom Prize 2007
External links
★ “The Chronicles of Hell”. Exhibition dedicated to the memory of Anna Politkovskaya by IPVnews
★ Book Festival readings, Anna Politkovskaya at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Audio Recordings and Transcriptions 2004-05 (Russian translated to English, streaming audio)
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