Russian Government Gangsters Kill Journalist Anna Politkovskaya

If this journal has a guiding principle it might best be phrased “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable,” or maybe, “If you’ve got a blacklist, put me on it.” However, from a safe desk in New York, London or wherever, that attitude isn’t all that brave. Other writers have tougher postings, and Anna Politkovskaya of Moscow was as tough as any US Marine because she had to be. She dared to tell the truth about post-communist Russia, its war in Chechnya, and the failure of democracy there. Her body was found in the elevator of her apartment building with fatal gunshot wounds over the week-end.

Her murder will not be solved. The people who did it don’t want it solved, and they control the investigative apparatus of Russia. By whatever name, Okhrana, Cheka, NKVD, KGB, FSB, the murderers are the same as ever. The shooter even left his Marakov 9 mm beside her like a calling card; Marakov has been the standard side arm of the police in the Warsaw Pact nations for years. Tsar Vladimir Putin is merely the latest in a long line of rulers who use terror to keep the Russian people in line. Killing journalists, and more than 40 have been murdered in Russia in the last decade or so, merely shows that the powerful feel no need to justify their policies and their actions. Since anything the Kensington Review has to say is rather third-rate compared to Ms. Politkovskaya' s work, the remainder of this column is her writing about her country. From her book, Putin’s Russia:

When [Putin] first appeared on Russia’s political radar screen as a possible head of state rather than as an unpopular Director of the universally detested Federal Security Bureau (FSB) he began making pronouncements to the effect that the Army, which had been diminished under Yeltsin, was henceforth to be reborn, and that all it lacked for its renaissance was a second Chechen war.

Everything that has happened in the northern Caucasus since then can be traced back to this premise. When the Second Chechen War began, the Army was given free rein, and in the presidential elections of 2000 it voted as one for Putin. The Army has found the present war highly profitable, a source of accelerated promotion, more and more medals, and the rapid forging of careers . . . .

* * * * *

Late yesterday evening, Paul Khlebnikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Forbes Magazine, was murdered in Moscow. He was mown down as he left the magazine's office. Khlebnikov was famous for writing about our oligarchs, the structure of Russian ‘gangster capitalism’ and the huge sums of easy money certain of our citizens have managed to get their hands on.

Also last evening, Victor Cherepkov was blown up by a grenade in Vladivostok. He was a member of our parliament, the State Duma, and famous for championing the weakest and poorest of this land... As he left his campaign headquarters, he was blown up by an anti-personnel mine activated by a trip-wire.

Yes, stability has come to Russia. It is a monstrous stability under which nobody seeks justice in law courts which flaunt their subservience and partisanship. Nobody in his or her right mind seeks protection from the institutions entrusted with maintaining law and order, because they are totally corrupt.