Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova?
And why now?
Excerpts from her autobiography - Newsweek
Showing posts with label Anna Politkovskaya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anna Politkovskaya. Show all posts
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Reversing habit of 'legal nihilism'
Ariel Cohen
Washington Times
April 1
Washington Times
April 1
President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Wednesday on the sidelines at the Group of 20 summit. Ironically, that's one day after the trial of former Russian oilman Mikhail Khodorkovsky opens in Moscow. This trial symbolizes the deterioration of the rule of law in Russia.
While the two leaders - both former law professors - will have their hands full with economic and security matters, the rule of law also should figure prominently on their bilateral agenda. A healthy legal system is necessary to protect the rights of foreign and domestic investors and to facilitate the development of civil society and human rights.
Russia's track record under communism was abysmal, and even before that it was problematic. Under Mr. Medvedev, who is attempting to turn the fight against corruption into a personal crusade, there may be changes for the better.
During the Boris Yeltsin presidency, the Russian courts, despite their corrupt practices and lack of judicial sophistication, slowly inched toward more independence. In 2002-03, however, a reversal began. The rulers increasingly use “telephone justice” - senior state officials call upon judges and tell them how to decide cases under the guise of protecting “paramount state interests.”
The “siloviki” - bosses of security services - increasingly have been involved in hostile takeovers, including of intellectual property such as lucrative trademarks like Stoli vodka. Most of all, they have been going after oil, metals and minerals.
The 2003-05 Yukos case was a watershed. The most successful and transparent Russian oil company was taken over under the pretext of multibillion-ruble tax arrears. Yet many government officials clearly stated that its owner, Mr. Khodorkovsky, was perceived as a political threat because of his support of liberal political parties and civil society.
The persecution of Yukos undermined the notion of justice being universal because it selectively targeted a politically inconvenient opponent. Loyal Russian oligarchs - though involved in unsavory business practices - were not prosecuted. The oligarchs and politicians quickly got the message that, in the words of the Borg in “Star Trek,” “Resistance is futile.”
After the Yukos affair, Russian and Western oil companies came under tremendous pressure from the Russian government, which used the state bureaucracy to renegotiate earlier contracts or to boot competitors out of the country. The victims included Exxon, Shell, British Petroleum, Hermitage Capital and the Russian companies Rusneft and Mechel.
Mr. Khodorkovsky was sentenced in 2005 and was eligible for parole last year. Instead, on Tuesday, he and his partner Platon Lebedev will face a new trial - and a new rap sheet. The trial is widely believed to be a political vendetta.
This may be a chance for Mr. Medvedev, who spoke with concern about Russia's “legal nihilism,” to act. As the kangaroo court gets under way, some Russian experts hope Mr. Medvedev may order an impartial trial or pardon Mr. Khodorkovsky. If, however, the West fails to save Mr. Khodorkovsky and Mr. Lebedev from life sentences, it would also surrender the chance for a more law-abiding state to the “siloviki” power brokers.
At the summit, Mr. Obama also should bring up the October 2006 murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose likely killers were acquitted by a Moscow jury in February. The prosecutors never even presented the court the names of those suspected of ordering her murder or the suspected gunman.
The police also haven't made arrests in the murder of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, who was gunned down a stone's throw from the Kremlin along with journalist Anastasia Baburova in February. The murders of others, including the defenestration of Kommersant Daily's military correspondent Ivan Safronov, the poisoning of Novaya Gazeta's deputy editor Yuri Shchekochikhin and the fatal 2004 shooting of Paul Klebnikov, an American of Russian descent who was editor in chief of Russian Forbes, all remain unresolved.
Without fundamental legal reform, a fight against corruption and a return to judicial independence, Russia will continue to linger at the bottom of the Transparency International Corruption Index and the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. If Russia doesn't return to internationally recognized legal practices, investments are likely to slow, and capital will continue to flee.
The administration should appeal to Mr. Medvedev to stop what he himself has called law enforcement's “nightmarish practices,” start reforming the legal system, ban the secret police and law enforcement bosses from engaging in expropriations and extortion, and fight corruption.
Mr. Obama also should ask that Mr. Medvedev order renewed investigations of the Politkovskaya and Markelov cases and ask for the release of Mr. Khodorkovsky. These measures would be a strong signal to the United States, to the Western business community and to the Russian people that a clean break with the lawless past is under way and that Russia may be joining the community of civilized nations.
Ariel Cohen is senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Security at the Heritage Foundation.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Russian reporter's son reflects on her killing
Reporting from Moscow -- The two-year hunt for the killers of acclaimed Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya hit a dead end last month when three men accused as accessories were found not guilty and set free. With the gunman still at large and no indication of who might have ordered or paid for Politkovskaya's October 2006 slaying, the jury's verdict was held up by government critics as proof of the fruitless pursuit of justice in the case. Prosecutors have appealed the verdict, and the investigation continues. On Wednesday, The Times interviewed Ilya Politkovsky, the journalist's 30-year-old son, in Moscow. He maintains that the police and prosecutors failed to prove their case to the jury.
Since the acquittal, there has been little news about the case. What's happening?
There's an appeal from the general prosecutor's office; they are saying that the verdict should be overturned. We are not supporting the appeal. We fully agree with the jury verdict. The problem was the investigation, not the jury. If my mother had been on this jury, she would have done the same thing.
Were you in Moscow when your mother was killed?
I was going to my mother's house to help her to bring up the bags. You know, she was shopping. I couldn't reach her on the phone, but I was going there anyway. It was usual for my mother to drive very slowly and not answer the phone. When I got there, there were lots of police and the entrance was completely blocked already. The police didn't let me in because they didn't know who I was. So after they looked at my passport, they told me what happened.
Were you in Moscow when your mother was killed?
I was going to my mother's house to help her to bring up the bags. You know, she was shopping. I couldn't reach her on the phone, but I was going there anyway. It was usual for my mother to drive very slowly and not answer the phone. When I got there, there were lots of police and the entrance was completely blocked already. The police didn't let me in because they didn't know who I was. So after they looked at my passport, they told me what happened.
How has your family coped since her death?
I had to represent her memory, talking to journalists as well as traveling around, because most of the events happen outside of Russia. Most of the people in Russia don't understand what happened. People who every day watch government channels, read government newspapers, they are in a kind of warm bath. This is the biggest part of the Russian population. For many years they've been seeing propaganda and they're getting their salaries every month, and that's enough for them. For them, my mother's work was like something from another planet. And I'm not blaming them. This is the current Russian situation. Now we can speak about the small part of the Russian population that was really interested in the case. . . . These people read Novaya Gazeta, listen to Echo of Moscow, a quite different kind of people. . . . For many people, my mother was a soldier. I don't really like that, but I understand it's true. . . . I lost my mother, not a soldier or a journalist.
How much contact did you have with investigators, and what was your impression of their work?
I think they were doing their jobs professionally, but then they dumped all their evidence in a big pile. They had 48 big files and it was 70% garbage. Two, three, four files of interrogations of neighbors, people who were walking past on the street. It's got nothing to do with the people on trial. The jury heard a lot of things in the courtroom that had nothing to do with the defendants. I don't believe these 48 files were done by mistake, but I still have no idea of the motivation. That's why we're not supporting the appeal -- because it's stupid to go back to court again with the same case. For example, in the indictment they say those two brothers were following my mother for two days before the murder. But they weren't. They were there only on the [day of the killing]. One of the brothers was in his university, with plenty of witnesses around.
People close to the case have said there was official tampering, that somebody was blocking the investigation. Do you have that sense as well?
Yes, we have this sense but we still don't have the reason.
Other prominent Russians have also been killed in similarly mysterious executions. Do you believe there is a link among the cases?
I don't have proof of that. The situation in Russia, with such people as [human rights lawyer Stanislav] Markelov, [journalist Anastasia] Baburova, my mother, they are thought of as annoying flies. The attitude toward the victim is, "OK, he's dead, who cares?"
What does your experience with investigators and courts indicate to you about the status of justice in Russia?
The problem was the pretrial investigation. I think they've been doing the same job for many years without juries and they still don't know how to do it for juries. They're used to preparing cases for judges. Now some people are saying this will be the last high-profile case for a jury. Already I saw on the Internet lots of former officials saying the Politkovskaya case proves that the jury is not capable of trying such high-profile cases.
Did you ever get any condolences from the Russian government?
None. Nothing. Not a word.
I had to represent her memory, talking to journalists as well as traveling around, because most of the events happen outside of Russia. Most of the people in Russia don't understand what happened. People who every day watch government channels, read government newspapers, they are in a kind of warm bath. This is the biggest part of the Russian population. For many years they've been seeing propaganda and they're getting their salaries every month, and that's enough for them. For them, my mother's work was like something from another planet. And I'm not blaming them. This is the current Russian situation. Now we can speak about the small part of the Russian population that was really interested in the case. . . . These people read Novaya Gazeta, listen to Echo of Moscow, a quite different kind of people. . . . For many people, my mother was a soldier. I don't really like that, but I understand it's true. . . . I lost my mother, not a soldier or a journalist.
How much contact did you have with investigators, and what was your impression of their work?
I think they were doing their jobs professionally, but then they dumped all their evidence in a big pile. They had 48 big files and it was 70% garbage. Two, three, four files of interrogations of neighbors, people who were walking past on the street. It's got nothing to do with the people on trial. The jury heard a lot of things in the courtroom that had nothing to do with the defendants. I don't believe these 48 files were done by mistake, but I still have no idea of the motivation. That's why we're not supporting the appeal -- because it's stupid to go back to court again with the same case. For example, in the indictment they say those two brothers were following my mother for two days before the murder. But they weren't. They were there only on the [day of the killing]. One of the brothers was in his university, with plenty of witnesses around.
People close to the case have said there was official tampering, that somebody was blocking the investigation. Do you have that sense as well?
Yes, we have this sense but we still don't have the reason.
Other prominent Russians have also been killed in similarly mysterious executions. Do you believe there is a link among the cases?
I don't have proof of that. The situation in Russia, with such people as [human rights lawyer Stanislav] Markelov, [journalist Anastasia] Baburova, my mother, they are thought of as annoying flies. The attitude toward the victim is, "OK, he's dead, who cares?"
What does your experience with investigators and courts indicate to you about the status of justice in Russia?
The problem was the pretrial investigation. I think they've been doing the same job for many years without juries and they still don't know how to do it for juries. They're used to preparing cases for judges. Now some people are saying this will be the last high-profile case for a jury. Already I saw on the Internet lots of former officials saying the Politkovskaya case proves that the jury is not capable of trying such high-profile cases.
Did you ever get any condolences from the Russian government?
None. Nothing. Not a word.
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