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Russia says Politkovskaya
murder ordered from abroad
Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Monday Aug 27, 2007
Russian prosecutors said on Monday they had detained 10 suspects
in the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya, but that the killing
was masterminded from abroad by anti-Kremlin forces trying to
discredit Russia.
The contract-style shooting last year of Politkovskaya, a fierce
critic of President Vladimir Putin, led to a storm of international
condemnation, with critics saying the Kremlin was failing to protect
freedom of speech.
Prosecutors had said her killing was probably linked to her reporting.
She had been active in exposing abuses by security forces in Russia's
turbulent Chechnya and neighboring regions.
Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika told reporters an investigation
showed Politkovskaya had been killed by an organised crime group
led by an ethnic Chechen and including at least five serving and
former law enforcement officers.
(Article continues below)
He said the same group may have been involved in two other high-profile
murders: the 2004 killing of U.S. reporter Paul Klebnikov and
the shooting last year of central bank deputy chief Andrei Kozlov.
But the chief prosecutor said the trail from the Politkovskaya
killing, and other crimes, led to Kremlin opponents living in
exile abroad.
Asked if he had in mind Boris Berezovsky, a multi-millionaire
critic of the Kremlin who lives in London, he smiled and refused
to answer the question.
"The person who ordered the (Politkovskaya) killing is abroad,"
Chaika told reporters at a news briefing.
"Our investigation has led us to conclude that only people
living abroad could be interested in killing Politkovskaya.
"Forces interested in destabilizing the country, changing
its constitutional order, in stoking crisis, in a return to the
old system where money and oligarchs ruled, in discrediting national
leadership, provoking external pressure on the country, could
be interested in this crime.
"Our investigations showed that this was not the first such
attempt -- a number of previous murders were similar provocations."
LINKS
Briefing Putin earlier in the day, Chaika said 10 people had
been detained on suspicion of involvement in Politkovskaya's murder.
"In the very near future they will be charged with carrying
out this grave crime," he said.
A lieutenant colonel of Moscow's Federal Security Service (FSB)
and a police major helped Politkovskaya's killers by supplying
information about her movements. Another three policemen were
also involved, Chaika said.
Chaika said investigators had evidence the same group was involved
in the Klebnikov killing. Two men were tried for killing the U.S.
reporter but were acquitted after a trial that was criticized
by his family.
He also said the group could be linked to the murder of central
banker Kozlov, but later appeared to back-track, saying the chief
suspect was banker Alexei Frankel, already awaiting trial for
the murder.
Politkovskaya was shot during the afternoon of October 7 as she
stepped out of her apartment in Moscow to get into the lift. Two
of the bullets hit her head. She was 48.
Putin said at the time the murder was a "disgusting crime."
But Politkovskaya's supporters said she had paid the price for
criticizing the Russian authorities. Foreign governments appealed
for a thorough investigation.
Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where Politkovskaya worked, gave
a cautious welcome to the arrests.
"Naturally, it is premature to speak about the Politkovskaya
murder having been solved," it said. "The people who
carried this out, their helpers and the real people who ordered
this, must be identified and convicted.
(Additional reporting by Chris Baldwin in Moscow)
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