Thursday, September 3, 2009

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Tradgedy Revisited, New Hope For Justice Amidst Chaos in Russia

Court orders renewed probe into Russian slaying September 3, 2009. To the utter astonishment of the entire world that is paying attention to world news today, the Supreme court in Russia has announced that a renewed probe into the murder of the famous journalist Anna Politkovskaya on October 7, 2006 will indeed be conducted! WHO WAS ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA?
"Born in New York to diplomat parents, Politkovskaya studied at Moscow State University before embarking on a career in journalism.
Politkovskaya was unusually strong in her public opposition to Putin, who ruled as Kremlin chief from 2000 to 2008. She was fearless in her reporting on Chechnya, the Russian special services and high level corruption.
Even colleagues were sometimes shocked by Politkovskaya's courage in breaking taboos on public opposition to Putin, the secret services and Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, in reports she wrote for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
Politkovskaya made many enemies in Russia's secret service after she said agents were deeply corrupt and routinely abducted people, especially in Chechnya and neighboring regions. She received many threats during her career.The Committee to Protect Journalists "New York, October 7, 2006—condemns today’s murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist renowned for her critical coverage of the Chechen conflict. Politkovskaya was found shot to death in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, The Associated Press reported."

"The Inter fax news agency, citing police, said Politkovskaya had been shot and that a pistol and four bullets were found in the elevator. Prosecutors planned to open a murder investigation, a spokeswoman for the Moscow prosecutor’s office told AP.
Politkovskaya, special correspondent for the independent Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was well known for her investigative reports on human rights abuses by the Russian military in Chechnya. In seven years covering the second Chechen war, Politkovskaya’s reporting repeatedly drew the wrath of Russian authorities. She was threatened, jailed, forced into exile, and poisoned during her career, CPJ research shows.Igor Korolkov, a colleague, told the Regnum news Web site that Politkovskaya had been reporting on alleged torture in Chechnya for a coming story."
Feb 19, 2009 ... Feb 19 (Reuters) - A Russian court acquitted on Thursday all three men accused of helping murder Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya. "The murder of Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, provoked an outcry in the West and underlined concerns about the dangers to reporters working in Russia. The murder was one of the highest profile killings during the eight-year rule of former President Vladimir Putin. Leaders in the United States and Europe raised concerns about the killing in discussions with Putin."





OK, so this is the time-line and some links to various articles published online concerning the death and the significance politically of this breaking development for Russian leadership in particular, Mr. Putin. So what is going to happen next? Where might this slippery slope lead to? This incredibly courageous woman was a published author with books listed online through Google search engine related to the poor job that the new Russian president Mr. Putin had been doing with democracy in Russia since the end of the cold war. I hope to actually get my hands on those eventually.

It seems like re-occurring themes appear to be popping up with "bad" people and human rights accountability doesn't it? I mean just in the past 5 weeks I can count a few occasions where world accountability for alledged human rights violations in the "past" are having huge "spotlights" placed all over them, and it also seems like apparently nobody is safe from this "back to the past" then to the future to face justice!!!
We will see what the political fall-out will be. I mean the alledged killers have already been acquitted, so who is going to be "probed" for the death of this woman? The details are still a bit sketchy so we will have to follow this story as it develops. Its just amazing to see the Russian Supreme Court step up to the plate so to speak and to go "against" possibly, anyways, its own government? Is this really happening in Russia?

William