Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya

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Anna Politkovskaya (2005)

Anna Politkovskaya ( Russian Анна Степановна Политковская ., Scientific transliteration Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya , who was born Мазепа / Mazepa ; * the 30th August 1958 in New York ; † 7. October 2006 in Moscow ) was a Russian-American journalist , author and human rights activist . She became known through reports and books about the war in Chechnya and corruption in the Russian Ministry of Defenseand the High Command of the Armed Forces in Chechnya. Her murder in October 2006 in the stairwell in front of her apartment in Moscow attracted great international attention.

Life

Anna Politkovskaya was born in New York and was a US citizen all her life . Her parents were of Ukrainian descent and worked in the diplomatic service of the Soviet Union at the United Nations . As a 20-year-old student, she married Alexander Politkowski. In 1980 she graduated from Lomonosov University in Moscow with a degree in journalism . From 1982 to 1993 Politkovskaya worked for various newspapers and publishers, including the Soviet / Russian daily Izvestia and the magazine Megapolis-Ekspress . From 1994 to mid-1999 she worked as a senior editor for emergency and crisis situations, commentator and deputy editor-in-chief at the weekly Obschtschaja Gazeta . She is one of 1,000 women under the project 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize candidate.

Journalistic work during the Chechen war

Politkovskaya was one of the few journalists who continuously reported from the crisis region during the Second Chechen War, contrary to the official representation. The reporter reported on war crimes committed by the Russian army and the Chechen paramilitary groups allied with them , on torture , murder and unlawful enrichment through robbery , corruption , embezzlement or embezzlement in the war zone. She called the conflict a "dirty war" and with her publications burdened the Chechen politician Ramzan Kadyrov, who is loyal to the Russian government .

As an employee of the Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta , she was considered an independent journalist in the West . In Russia she was seen by many journalist colleagues as a “polluter” and in Russian nationalist circles as an “enemy of the Russian people”. In 2001 she left Russia following death threats and lived in Austria for a few months , but then returned. In February 2002 she was briefly arrested by the Russian military in Chechnya.

In 2002 she offered herself as a mediator in the Moscow hostage drama in the Dubrovka Musical Theater.

In 2004, she reported being the victim of a poison attack on a flight to Beslan in early September . After drinking tea, she passed out and had to be hospitalized in Rostov-on-Don .

assassination

Memory of Anna Politkovskaya (Moscow 2006)

Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on Moscow's Lesnaya Street at around 4:03 pm on Saturday, October 7, 2006. Four bullets struck her in the chest and one in the head. The shots were fired from a Makarov brand pistol . The police found five cartridge cases at the scene. Around 5 p.m., a neighbor found Politkovskaya dead in the elevator. The image of the alleged perpetrator was recorded by the surveillance camera installed in the entrance area. The murder happened on the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin . Anna Politkovskaya, who was buried in the Troyekurov Cemetery in southwest Moscow, left two grown children behind.

Western politicians and human rights groups called for the case to be clarified quickly. The newspaper Novaya Gazeta , for which Politkovskaya had written, offered the equivalent of around 738,000 euros in reward for information about the arrest of the murderer and the people behind them.

Speculation after the murder

Western media

The assassination of Politkovskaya was portrayed by the media in the western world as symptomatic of Vladimir Putin's rule , as a selection of the following voices shows:

  • Whoever was behind the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Vladimir Putin cannot shirk responsibility for a political climate in which laws are broken so ruthlessly. Contract killings are not uncommon. And those who take a public position, whether against the Kremlin or against corruption, must fear for their lives. The London newspaper The Independent on October 9, 2006
  • If this murder follows the usual Russian pattern, no suspect will ever be found and no murderer will ever be brought to justice. (...) Whoever shot or paid someone to do it can already record a victory. As Russian and Eastern European history show, millions of people do not have to be killed to intimidate others. A few selected assassinations, at the right time and in the right place, are usually sufficient. The Washington Post October 9, 2006
  • The fact that Russia's highest prosecutor, General Yuri Chaika, has taken on the investigation (…) gives no reason for hope, as such high-level interference would in a real democracy. The involvement of the highest level of Russian government is more of a guarantee that the killers will never be found. (…) But even if Putin's people had nothing to do with the fact that Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of their apartment building in Moscow, his contempt for the law created the climate in which the murder was committed.
  • Unnatural deaths are happening here with alarming regularity, although the impression is carefully cultivated that President Putin is presiding over an era of stability of economic progress and resurrected national pride. Some also say that is precisely why. In a Risky Place to Gather News, a Very Familiar Story New York Times, October 11, 2006
  • The murder of Anna Politkovskaya is the final proof that President Putin has established nothing more than an ordinary dictatorship, with all the usual disregard for the law that goes with it. This realization will come in time for the world, especially for Europe.
  • Where is the public protest of the international organizations? Silence on the domestic political parquet in Germany! Communication routine! Do journalist organizations not have their own contribution to the debate about the events? Where are the protests of the artists, the theater and filmmakers? Only a few speak up. The reactions remain meager. Do we persist in a dismayed pose and are we only afraid of criticism of the energy supplier Russia? Has civil courage in the western democracies completely left us? Where are the demonstrators and the reactions of the Gorbi friends of yore, who point out that here a person, the mother of two children, has sacrificed himself for the sake of the truth? Is it enough if human rights organizations formulate "press statements" on our behalf that are no longer as news feed for the international news agencies - forgotten the next day?

Russia

In Russia too, many different theories have been circulated by law enforcement, politics, and the press. An official Russian theory suggests the involvement of the Chechen Republic leadership. The Russian government later expressed the possibility that Politkovskaya's murder on Vladimir Putin's birthday was a provocation against him and Ramzan Kadyrov. Others claimed that the murder was initiated by the West and the opposition because it was beneficial to them.

For the President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov , was Boris Berezovsky as principal. Natalja Koslowa, a journalist for the Russian government newspaper, also suspected that Boris Berezovsky or Akhmed Sakayev organized the murder in order to create an occasion for criticism of the Russian government.

In 2007, prosecutors announced that the case was as good as resolved and that the person who ordered the murder was known to be living abroad. It was clear to everyone that he meant Berezovsky, the number one public enemy at the time. In an express poll by Echo Moscow , over 80 percent of listeners doubted this version.

Investigation into the murder

Politkovskaya's tomb in Moscow in the Troyekurovo cemetery

The Austrian daily Der Standard reported on October 9, 2006 that the Russian police knew “the identity of the murderer because he was unmasked and the video surveillance over the house entrance had not been deactivated. Also because of this behavior, which was classified as 'unprofessional', it was assumed on Sunday that the executor himself should have already been eliminated by his clients. "

About a month after Politkovskaya was assassinated, the organization Reporters Without Borders started collecting signatures. The aim was to set up an international commission; this should investigate the murder of Politkovskaya. The initiative was supported by 6000 people. Among the signatories were prominent former dissidents such as Jelena Bonner , Wladimir Bukowski and Bronisław Geremek . It was signed by the lawyers Baltasar Garzón and Carla Del Ponte , the politicians Bernard Kouchner and Daniel Cohn-Bendit , the philosophers André Glucksmann and Bernard-Henri Lévy , the writers Fernando Arrabal , Ismaïl Kadaré and Margaret Atwood and the actors Jeanne Moreau and Alain Souchon .

On August 23, 2007, the investigative committee at the General Prosecutor's Office in Russia announced that the murder was close to being investigated. Four days later, Attorney General Yuri Chaika personally announced the arrest of ten suspects - Chechens in particular, but also former and active officers of the Interior Ministry and the FSB's secret service. Ultimately, the trail leads to opposition activists in exile abroad as clients. Those arrested included FSB Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov and Interior Ministry officer Sergei Hadschikurbanov . However, five of the alleged perpetrators were released after a few days. In mid-September 2007, the authorities arrested another suspect: Shamil Burajew that between 1995 and 2003 head of administration Rajons Achkhoy-Martan in Chechnya had been.

In May 2008, the Russian investigative authorities named the Chechen Rustam Machmudov as a suspected shooter. However, because the suspect's name was published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in March , he was able to escape abroad before being arrested.

Finally, on October 3, 2008, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office handed over the indictment to a Moscow military court. The trial of four alleged accomplices before a Moscow jury court began in November 2008. The indicted were Ryaguzov and Khajikurbanov, as well as the two Chechens Ibrahim and Jabrail Machmudov, two brothers of the alleged gunman Rustam Machmudov. Politkovskaya's lawyer Stanislaw Markelow was murdered on January 19, 2009. The trial ended on February 19, 2009 with an acquittal for all defendants. The Russian Supreme Court found on June 25, 2009 that procedural errors had been committed and overturned the acquittals. The process has been rolled out again since August 5, 2009.

At the end of May 2011, Russian investigators arrested the alleged murderer of Politkovskaya, Rustam Makhmudov, in Chechnya. This was followed in August 2011 by the arrest of the alleged mastermind Dmitri Pavlyuchenko , a former colonel of the criminal police. Pavlyuchenko should have put together the executive team and organized the murder weapon. At the beginning of September 2011, however, the investigators named the Chechen businessman Lom-Ali Gaitukayev as the chief organizer.

In December 2012, a court in Moscow sentenced Dmitri Pavlyuchenko to 11 years in a prison camp for aiding and abetting the murder of Politkovskaya. He also has to pay three million rubles (approx. 75,000 euros) in compensation to the bereaved. The court assessed his willingness to cooperate with the authorities to mitigate the punishment of Pavlyuchenko, which meant that the prosecutor's office had asked for a year to pass the sentence. Politkovskaya's survivors, who appeared as joint plaintiffs in the trial and are demanding the maximum sentence of 20 years for Pavlyuchenko, immediately announced an appeal.

The guilt of the convicts was questioned by observers from abroad. The Chechen Walid Lurachmajew , a member of the Chechen Mafia in Moscow, who is said to have carried out contract killings on the instigation of the Russian secret service and whose cell phone signal was located in a nearby park shortly after the crime, was named as another possible person involved in the crime. Lurachmajew was never questioned by the police. It is still unknown who the clients are in the background.

In June 2014, a Moscow city court sentenced an alleged organizer and the shooter to life imprisonment in a prison camp. A month earlier, the Russian public prosecutor's office found two men and other accomplices to be guilty. Amnesty International described the decision as a "small step" in bringing about justice.

Politkovskaya's family sued Russia before the European Court of Human Rights . Politkovskaya's relatives accuse the Russian secret services of having ordered the murder of the journalist because of her revelations. The Strasbourg court ruled that the plaintiffs can rightly accuse the Russian judiciary of inadequate investigations. Russia made no attempts to find out who commissioned the murder and paid for it. In addition, the duration of the investigation was not appropriate. Politkovskaya's relatives were awarded a compensation of 20,000 euros.

Awards

Street names

In Milan since 2013 recalls a park of Politkovskaya, in Ferrara , there is the Via Anna Politkovskaya . A street in Tbilisi is also named after her. There are half a dozen places of remembrance in France.

Since she had not previously been honored in Russia, a garden was dedicated to her in 2018 in Moscow opposite the Novaya Gazeta editorial office. The ambassadors of Spain, Latvia, Germany, Great Britain and a representative of the US embassy are planting flowers in the "Anna Gardens".

Fonts

Monographs

items

See also

  • Media in Russia (paragraph: violence against journalists)
  • She knew too much (“Une femme à abattre”), French television film by Olivier Langlois from 2008. It is a political drama about freedom of the press in Russia in connection with the Anna Politkovskaya case.

literature

  • Ekaterina Lysova: The Assassination of Anna Politkovskaja - Collapse of Democracy? In: Eastern European Law . Present-day questions from the rights of the East . 52nd vol., 2006, pp. 394-408.
  • Norbert Schreiber: Anna Politkowskaja. Chronicle of an announced murder . Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007. ISBN 978-3-85129-652-5

Web links

Commons : Anna Politkovskaya  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Obituaries

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A courageous journalist. ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Documentation Center Courageous research and reports .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anstageslicht.de
  2. ↑ 1000 PeaceWomen Worldwide. Anna Politkovskaya. Retrieved April 8, 2018 . , German digital version of 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe , series: Contrast Book, Verlag Scalo, Zurich 2005
  3. ↑ One too many articles - The murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: MDR Kultur , July 14, 2013.
  4. ↑ Appointment with death In: Die Zeit , October 12, 2006.
  5. ↑ Friederike Freiburg: “Climate of Intimidation” In: Spiegel Online , October 9, 2006.
  6. ↑ 15 years ago they took hostages in the Dubrovka Theater Center , Novaya Gazeta, October 24, 2017, with the original report by Anna Politkovskaya
  7. ↑ Russian website regions.ru from October 8, 2006
  8. ↑ Almost like in the old days of the KGB ... In: Der Standard , October 10, 2006.
  9. ↑ Nina Lvovna Khrushchev : Commentary: Indifferent West - Dark Russia. In: Die Welt , October 11, 2006.
  10. ↑ Norbert Schreiber: Chronicle of an announced murder. Wieser Verlag , Klagenfurt 2007.
  11. ↑ Stegherr, Marc, Liesem, Kerstin: The media in Eastern Europe - media systems in the transformation process , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, ISBN 978-3-531-17482-2 , page 323
  12. ↑ “Kremlin Killed Freedom of Expression” In: Der Standard , October 9, 2006.
  13. ^ Justice for Anna Politkovskaya! ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Reporters Without Borders November 3, 2006.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / en.rsf.org
  14. ↑ Russia's judiciary is counting on the investigation of the murder of journalist Politkovskaya soon. In: RIA Novosti , 23 August 2007.
  15. ↑ "Chechen Criminals" as the murderers of Anna Politkovskaya. In: Die Presse , August 27, 2007.
  16. ^ Public Prosecutor's Office: Politkovskaya murder controlled from abroad. In: Deutsche Welle , August 27, 2007.
  17. ↑ Five suspects released again. In: Focus , September 3, 2007.
  18. ↑ Police arrest Chechens. In: Focus , September 15, 2007.
  19. ↑ Fled abroad In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 14, 2008.
  20. ↑ The indictment for the Politkovskaya murder handed over to the court. In: Die Welt , October 4, 2008.
  21. ↑ The accused in the Politkovskaya murder case acquitted. In: Spiegel Online , February 19, 2009.
  22. ↑ Manfred Quiring: Criticism of the Kremlin after the Politkovskaya process. In: Die Welt , February 20, 2009.
  23. ↑ Court overturns acquittals in the murder trial. In: Focus , June 25, 2009.
  24. ^ New round in the Politkovskaya process. ( Memento from November 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Deutsche Welle , August 5, 2009.
  25. ↑ Suspected Politkovskaya murderer captured. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 31, 2011.
  26. ↑ Further arrests and references to clients. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 24, 2011.
  27. ↑ Businessman founded gang. In: n-tv , September 2, 2011.
  28. ↑ Policeman has to go to the camp for eleven years. In: n-tv , December 14, 2012.
  29. ↑ Have Russian hitmen been killing with impunity in Turkey? BBC News, December 13, 2016, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  30. ↑ DIE WELT: Russia: Life imprisonment for Politkovskaya murder . In: THE WORLD . June 9, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed January 26, 2018]).
  31. ↑ Europe rights court censures Russia over journalist murder probe . In: Reuters , July 17, 2018.
  32. ↑ ECHR condemns Moscow: Too much ambiguity in Politkovskaya murder . In: Tagesschau , July 17, 2018.
  33. ↑ 2007 IPA FTP Prize Special Award , accessed August 29, 2019.
  34. ↑ MILAN, ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA'S GARDEN
  35. ↑ Via Anna Politkovskaja on Google Maps
  36. ↑ Anna Politkovskaïa, figure emblématique d'une démocratie en recul , TV5, October 7, 2012
  37. ↑ Daily summary by the editor-in-chief of Echo Moscow , July 13, 2018
  38. ^ A Moscou, un jardin inauguré en mémoire de la journaliste assassinée Politkovskaïa , la Liberation, 13 July 2018
  39. ↑ The Novaya Gazeta editorial team has an Anna garden. In memory of Anna Politkovskaya , Novaya Gazeta, July 13, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Politkovskaya, Anna Stepanovna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Politkovskaja, Anna Stepanovna; Политковская, Анна Степановна (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-American journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 30, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 2006
Place of death Moscow