Rouble trouble hits Russian media
While the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial descends into farce, her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is cutting reporting staff. Is there more to the move than the financial crisis, asks Maria Eismont
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Who are the authorities fighting?
The recent developments into investigations of Russian journalists’ murders, the attempts to accuse publicists and writers in extremism and other crimes along with Duma’s legislation activities, prompts the thought that the major task of Russian authorities is to fight against media and writers, rather then criminals.
On 12 September, Kommersant reported that the prosecutor’s office of Moscow Central Administrative District closed the criminal investigation into the March death of Kommersant defense correspondent Ivan Safronov because of ‘an absence of foul play’.
Safronov threw himself out of the staircase window in his apartment building without any obvious reason: he had a successful career and happy family life. He was a respected military correspondent who often covered sensitive issues in the fields of defence, army and space. The prosecutors opened a criminal case on ‘incitement to suicide’, but failed to find either those who may have prompted the journalist to commit suicide, or any personal motives for taking his own life. At the same time, according to Kommersant’s deputy editor, Iliya Bulavinov, investigators totally neglected the possibility of work-related inducement to suicide, and the case was not fully investigated.
On 27 August, the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika claimed the arrest of 10 suspects into the prominent investigative reporter from Novaya gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya. Four of the suspects have been charged. Chaika also reported that besides the members of a criminal gang, some current and former police and Federal Security Service officers helped organising the murder. The reports brought some hope to the murdered journalists’ families and colleagues, as this was the first more or less effective investigation following around 47 murders of journalists in Russia since 1992, considered work-related.
However, in the two days following Chaika’s report, two former policemen, suspects in Politkovskaya’s murder, were released. Moreover, the prosecutor’s statement on the masterminds of the murder seriously confused the journalist’s colleagues. Novaya gazeta’s Roman Shleinov reported that the Prosecutor General ‘repeated almost word for word a statement President Vladimir Putin made in the immediate aftermath of Politkovskaya’s murder, blaming forces outside Russia for attempting to undermine the current situation in the country.’ For Novaya gazeta’s journalists this was a sign that any further investigation would be politically influenced.
Politicised murders are very hard to investigate, given the high level of corruption in Russian law enforcement agencies. Nevertheless, some serious cases are actually investigated, although the investigations rarely lead to charges.
In June 2004, well-known St Petersburg journalist Maksim Maksimov disappeared. The investigators managed to find and arrest the suspects. Two witnesses provided a full description of Maksimov’s murder, and others added details. The story appeared in local and international media many times. But since the suspects were experienced officers from the corruption division of Internal Affairs Ministry, the prosecutors had trouble bringing them to justice. The formal reason for this is the fact that journalist’s body was never found. Meanwhile, unofficial sources says, the suspected officers boast that they have high-ranked patrons who will soon help them to get free.
Yet, Manana Aslamazyan, the head of the Educated Media Foundation, the organisation which provided professional training for Russian journalists, after mistakenly violating the administrative code, was branded a criminal right away. The foundation was shut down. In Nizhny Novgorod police confiscated all Novaya Gazeta’s computers ‘to check for unlicensed software’; Krasnodar prosecutors found ‘signs of extremism’ in the books of respected political scientist Andrey Piontkovsky; Moscow prosecutors threatened the lawyer and writer Pavel Astakhov with a libel case, because Astakhov had described corrupt Russian policemen in his novel. The well-known historian and journalist Vladimir Pribylovsky is suspected of extremism. The celebrated satirist Victor Shenderovich is suspected of inciting ethnic and national hatred. When someone shot at Moscow investigative reporter Andrey Kalitin, police refused to open a criminal case based on murder attempt, insisting that this was just a case of hooliganism.
The state Duma seems to support these developments. The parliament’s lower chamber is ready to consider a new bill that bans mentioning the nationality and religion of crimes and their victims. Rather then beating nationalism and extremism, this law will obviously hamper spreading the information on hate crimes and nationalism in Russia. The previous Duma’s anti-extremism amendments gave the law enforcement agencies more opportunities to silence journalists and suspend media.
Investigating contract-style murders, disappearances, and motiveless suicides, is certainly much more difficult then bringing libel cases and catching journalists and educators red-handed for rules violations. Hopefully, the new government, which is meant to fight corruption, and the next parliament, will at least change the priorities in the work of law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, when it comes to the journalists and writers, this work looks more like witch-hunting than fighting with criminals.
The politics of murder
On Monday, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika announced the arrest of ten people suspected of involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. Those held include officials from the Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Chaika said that the people ultimately behind the murder are living outside the Russian Federation, adding that the murder was committed with the intention of destabilising Russia and undermining public confidence in the authorities. The prosecutor general also suggested that the criminals responsible are seeking to re-impose the rule of the oligarchs in Russia.
As one of the journalists present at the press conference, I was struck by the ambivalence of the chief prosecutor’s statement. The editors of Novaya Gazeta are grateful to the investigators who have undertaken a massive task, examined all versions of events and taken account of every significant piece of information. Over a period of ten months they have drawn up a list of suspects that also includes members of the police force and the special services. In the conditions that prevail in Russia, this is a remarkable achievement.
A great deal remains to be done, however. The evidence has not been fully gathered or compiled, interviews have not been completed, connections have yet to be made – in other words, a successful outcome to the investigation remains a long way off.
That is why it is so troubling that the prosecutor general is summing up before a full indictment has been issued, and long before legal proceedings have been completed. What is more, he has repeated almost word for word a statement President Vladimir Putin made in the immediate aftermath of Politkovskaya’s murder, blaming forces outside Russia for attempting to undermine the current situation in the country. Either the Russian president is blessed with prophetic powers and can foresee the results of outstanding criminal cases, or the public prosecutor is making an effort to please Putin.
At the press conference, I asked Yuri Chaika if the coincidence embarrassed him, and if any political pressure had been exerted on the investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Chaika appeared slightly offended, responded that nothing embarrassed him, and categorically rejected any possibility of political pressure.
It will be difficult for investigators to remain independent, however, when both the president and the chief prosecutor have publicly indicated where the orchestrators of the murder should be sought, and what their motives were. In Russia, an investigator does not have the authority to resist pressure. Recently publicised cases indicate that if an investigator does attempt to act independently, he is prevented from performing his professional duties, asked to resign, or prosecuted under criminal law.
Yuri Chaika’s declaration, that Politkovskaya’s murder was commissioned from the outside by forces intent on destabilising Russia, resembles the statement of a politician rather than a public prosecutor. It fails to stand up to criticism if only because the murder of a journalist could not destabilise the country. Over the past ten years, more than 200 journalists have been killed or have died in suspicious circumstances. The Russian public is neither surprised nor intimidated by the murders: people became inured to these things long ago.
Some of the figures who have died were very widely known. Vladislav Listyev, a television presenter loved by millions of viewers, was shot dead on 1 March 1995. The crime has not been solved. Dmitry Kholodov, a journalist for the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper (which has a print run of over two million), was killed by an explosive device in his office in 1994. The suspects have been fully acquitted. The chief editor of Forbes magazine, Paul Khlebnikov, was shot and killed on 9 July 2004. Once again, the suspects were subsequently acquitted in court (which only indicates the ‘quality’ of the evidence). These events failed to create any kind of stir in Russia. After three years, no one had associated the murder of the editor of Forbes with attempts to undermine state security.
Now the prosecutor general has linked the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Khlebnikov by saying that they were to the advantage of forces from abroad, and intended to destabilise Russia. His language is redolent of times when the internal problems of the Soviet Union were linked exclusively to the machinations of enemies outside the country. Furthermore the argument is weak. If we are to suppose even for a moment that forces outside Russia’s borders are in a position to hire officials from the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry to kill a journalist, then the leaders of the special services, the police force and the Prosecutor General’s Office should resign tomorrow.
Justice for Anna
Ten people have been arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. This was announced at a news conference given on August 27 by the General Prosecutor, Yuri Chaika. It was confirmed by the special investigator from the Prosecutor General’s Office, Pyotr Garibyan. Charges have been brought against the arrested concerning several episodes of criminal activity. The court legitimated detentions made from August 15-23 and sanctioned the arrests. Active investigations are now being carried out, including interrogations and searches.
Of course, it’s too early to talk about solving Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. Not all the accomplices have been detained, while the guilt of those who have been arrested is yet to be proved. In such a complicated case, mistakes are possible while the presumption of innocence cannot be cancelled, even considering that it was murder in the first degree. All must be proved cogently so that the case does not break down in court. That is why we cannot disclose all the details known to journalists from Novaya gazeta who continue their own investigation into Anna’s murder.
So who has been arrested? First, there are several members of a rather big and well-known criminal ethnic gang that specialises in contract murders. Second, there are several officers (former and acting ones) from law enforcement bodies and the special services. We know their record of service and their record of criminal episodes, and we have an idea of how roles were assigned in the preparation and completion of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder.
The number of the arrested and those who are to be arrested raises several points.
First, one may assume that separate investigations by the Prosecutor General’s Office and by Novaya gazeta led to at least two stable criminal groups that cooperate ‘fruitfully’ with each other. Anna wrote about this interpenetration of crime and law enforcement bodies many times. An absence of control allows warrant officers and majors to sell their official powers. It must be stressed that this is a joint enterprise established years ago and based on grave crimes and offences. If we unravelled this tangle, then the details of many famous unsolved cases would be disclosed.
Second, the murder was planned and prepared meticulously by professionals who had had experience of solving such kinds of ‘problems’.
Third, it had a high cost. It’s too early to talk about those who ordered this murder. Besides, we don’t have guarantees that real clients’ names will be mentioned in the indictment. And that wouldn’t be the investigation’s fault.
We have repeated many times that we don’t have complaints against those who are investigating the murder of Novaya gazeta’s journalist. We are cooperating, and the mutual opinion is that this cooperation is effective. We just want to be sure that certain ‘rational reasons’ that do not relate to this matter directly do not influence the outcome of our joint work. The outcome we need is clear. The killers, accomplices and real clients of this murder must be established and convicted.
Analysing the circumstances of Anna’s death, we approximately reconstructed the crime. The mediators got the order in the spring or summer of 2006. At the beginning of September, Politkovskaya began to be shadowed. Prior to that, her actual address (she had moved to a flat on Lesnaya Street not long before that) was established using the facilities of the special services. She was shadowed from morning till night. Generally, Anna was very careful, considering the number of hidden and evident threats. She always reported to editorial staff about all ‘peculiarities’ that happened to her and her relatives.
But by the end of August and beginning of September the situation changed. Her mother was in hospital and she had just buried her father. Anna’s routine was practically the same every day then, as opposed from her usual working days. In the morning she had a walk with her dog, and then she went shopping and went to see her mother in the hospital. In the afternoon she again took her dog for a walk and late in the day she went to the hospital again. When you have problems with your relatives you don’t think about yourself too much. ANNA did mention, though, some strange people that she had met on her staircase.
Yes, those strange people – to put it more exactly one man. We think that the killer had entered the block of flats at least twice before, following Politkovskaya and scouting the place. On 7 October at 16:01 he fired five shots. The first and the fifth bullet (checking shot) were shot into the head. A remodeled gas gun with silencer was left at the crime scene. There wes no previous crime records of the gun.
The killer rushed out of the door, got in a car and left the crime scene. The publication of the frames fixing all this, made by someone and passed to journalists, prejudiced the investigation hugely. As you understand, there are a lot of essential details lying behind this chronicle that cannot be disclosed yet.
We often hear questions and reproaches as to why the investigation has taken so long, and why we journalists have been saying ‘no comment’ for such a long time.
As for the terms of the investigation. Anna Politkovskaya published over 500 articles in Novaya gazeta. Almost each one of them could have been the reason for the murder. It’s not only material about Chechnya. The geography is rather large. It’s Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Astrakhan, Bashkiria, St Petersburg, and Moscow. That is why initially there were many versions. One of the first ones was about a special squad officer in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk whose family name is Lapin. This man threatened Politkovskaya many times. Now he is being tried in the court in another case. Lapin’s accomplices, who are also officers, were wanted by the federal security service. The investigation of Politkovskaya’s murder had questions for them too. One of them was found in the city of Khanty-Mansiysk. He didn’t hide; he lived at home and continued his service. But it turned out that these people didn’t have any connection to this murder.
This way, step by step, version by version, the skilful investigative work was done. Many things were happening around these two investigations – ours and the official one. Agents provocateurs tried to foul the trail and divert the investigation. Some people tried to get the money offered by Novaya gazeta’s shareholder Alexander Lebedev. There were also threats and we will discuss those at another time.
And finally. Our reserve in communicating with our colleagues could have caused offence. Some people said we were taking care not to fall foul of anyone and that’s why we kept silent. The yellow press carried out their own investigations and communicated silly things tallking about ‘witnesses’ and giving their names (mainly Anna’s relatives and people who had no relation to this matter). All that endangered those people’s lives. Some people insisted on the ‘correct’ versions given by high ranking officials. (By the way, neither presidential aide Igor Shuvalov nor Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov who made loud statements about this case, have been interrogated yet).
Such was the background to the investigation. This is the answer to the question ‘why has it taken so long?’ And we will wait as long as need be to be sure that the sentence is indisputable and true.