Putin’s birthday
Looking through tons of amateur Russian videos, I found interview with journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and realized instantly why she was killed two years ago.
Murder of Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and human rights activist was well known for her opposition to the Chechnya conflict and to Vladimir Putin.
On October 7, 2006, Putin’s birthday, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Makarov pistol and four shell casings were found beside her body. She was shot four times, once in the head.
Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
A week after the assassination, former KGB-officer and writer Alexander Litvinenko accused Putin of sanctioning the murder. Two weeks after this statement, Litvinenko was poisoned by the radioactive polonium.
Death of Yuri Shchekochikhin
Journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin, whom I knew in person, when I lived in Moscow, and who used to write about organized crime and corruption, which involved high-rank FSB officers, was poisoned in 2003 – just a few days before his planned departure to the US where he planned to meet with FBI investigators.
In December 2005, while attending a conference of Reporters Without Borders in Vienna, Anna Politkovskaya said: «People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has kept track of the number of Russian journalists killed since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.
According to CPJ research, Russia is the third deadliest country in the world for journalists over the past 15 years, behind only the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Algeria. A total of 47 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, with the vast majority of killings unsolved.
