(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, March 1, 2015) No one can disagree with Yuliya Latynina that with the murder of Boris Nemtsov, Russia has entered a new era, one in which the political opponents of the regime are killed or intimidated by that possibility and one about which it is critically important that all recognize that reality (echo.msk.ru/programs/code/1501598-echo/). […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Daisy Sindelar – March 1, 2015) On December 1, 1934, a killing took place that would set the stage for one of the blackest chapters in Soviet history. The victim was Sergei Kirov, the popular head of the Leningrad Communist Party and one of the few men who could stand toe-to-toe with the increasingly powerful Soviet […]
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(Jack Matlock – jackmatlock.com – March 1, 2015) Jack Matlock is a career diplomat who served on the front lines of American diplomacy during the Cold War and was U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union when the Cold War ended. Responding to the shock of the gang-style execution of Nemtsov in Moscow, Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomarev, speaking at Tufts University yesterday, said […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 1, 2015) The horror and revulsion all people of good will feel about the murder of Boris Nemtsov in the shadow of the Kremlin has led many to treat this latest crime as if it were something new. In fact, the killing of Nemtsov is only the latest example of Vladimir […]
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(Moscow Times editorial – themoscowtimes.com – March 2, 2015) There is no shortage of theories as to who was behind the murder of Boris Nemtsov. But we should not allow ourselves to be fooled by the decoys spread by investigators and the pro-Kremlin media, such as that his murder was the result of a business dispute or revenge by his […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Mikhail Sokolov and Luke Johnson – February 28, 2015) Slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was looking ahead to a planned March 1 opposition rally, though in an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service earlier this month, he portrayed the demonstration as just a first step in a long struggle. “If you think that [authorities] would run away […]
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(Bloomberg editorial – bloomberg.com – March 1, 2015) The thousands who marched in Moscow on Sunday in honor of the murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov did so because they recognize just how much has been lost with his death. Nemtsov had been brave enough to tell the truth in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The official response to his apparently professional […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 28, 2015) Almost three weeks ago, Boris Nemtsov said that he feared that Vladimir Putin would kill him for his opposition activities, and last night, the Kremlin leader did, either by direct order which some are convinced is the most likely or by creating the barbarous climate in Russia which has made such […]
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(Interfax – February 28, 2015) Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has expressed confidence that Friday night’s assassination in the center of Moscow of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov is a scheme to “provoke aggravation, and maybe even destabilization, of the situation in the country, increase the confrontation.” “It’s hard to say now which side is responsible for this. One mustn’t hurry […]
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[“The Murder of Boris Nemtsov: Another Putin opponent is killed by unknown assailants” – Wall Street Journal editorial – February 28, 2015] The Wall Street Journal comments upon the assassination of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. In the gangster state that is Vladimir Putin ‘s Russia, we may never learn who shot dead Boris Nemtsov in Moscow late Friday night, much […]
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[“Death threats and a late night dinner before Russia’s Nemtsov was shot dead” – Reuters – Thomas Grove – MOSCOW, Feb 28, 2015] Reuters covers the assassination of Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. A political reformer who had fallen foul of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nemtsov had been preoccupied for weeks with details of an opposition march planned for Sunday. * […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 28, 2015) When reporters asked former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov who was behind the assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, he dismissed the question as irrelevant. Whoever did the dirty work, he implied, would have done so only with President Vladimir Putin’s blessing. “Who gave the order to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – February 28, 2015) The killing of prominent Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow late on Friday shocked policymakers and other public figures both in Russia and abroad. His associates tend to believe that the murder was politically motivated. They are determined to hold a mourning procession in central Moscow on Sunday […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, Feb. 28, 2015) The mayor’s office has given permission for a planned procession in central Moscow on Sunday to mourn Boris Nemtsov, an official in the city administration said. “The route lies from Kitaigorodsky Proyezd along Moskvoretskaya Embankment and the Greater Moskvoretsky Bridge. The procession is to terminate on the Smaller Moskvoretsky Bridge,” Alexei Mayorov, head of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Eli Lake – February 28, 2015) The murder of a high-profile Russian opposition leader has already sent a chill among President Vladimir Putin’s beleaguered political foes. Putin’s opponents have turned up dead before. Russia’s president has sent rival oligarchs and punk bands to prison camps. He has shut down television stations and banned nongovernmental organizations. But […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 28, 2015) Boris Nemtsov, 55, one of the most vocal political opponents of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead outside the Kremlin on Friday night, revealing the deep sense of alienation between various political forces in Russia and showing how political divisions in the country can in a moment turn violent. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – October 8, 2014) Memorial events were held in various Russian cities on Tuesday to honor the eight-year anniversary of the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Members of human rights organization Amnesty International held a memorial service in front of the Novaya Gazeta building in Moscow, where a plaque was set […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, October 2, 2014) You can call it the “people’s lustration,” the “Trash-Bucket Challenge,” or mob rule. But by whatever name, Ukrainian activists are increasingly taking the matter of punishing officials from the old regime into their own hands. Impatient with unsigned lustration legislation, activists from groups like the ultranationalist Right Sector have been tossing officials in trash […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 22, 2014) Britain is planning to hold a public inquiry into the death of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko while in exile in Britain, news agencies reported Tuesday. Home Secretary Theresa May confirmed that the public inquiry will be held, Reuters reported. The inquiry will open the way for an investigation of whether the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – July 14, 2014) The editor of two Russian-language newspapers who was seized last month in eastern Ukraine and who was believed to have been held by Ukrainian government forces has been found dead, his colleague said in an online post. The body of Sergei Dolgov, who was an editor at newspapers Hochu […]
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[“Who Ordered Politkovskaya’s Murder?” – New York Times editorial – June 10, 2014] The New York Times comments on the recent convictions of five additional men for involvement in the 2006 assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya: Almost eight years after the gruesome murder of Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia’s most respected investigative journalists, Moscow’s highest criminal court has finally sentenced five […]
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MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) – A Moscow City Court prosecutor said on Monday the life sentence handed down to those found guilty of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder was the highest achievement of Russian justice, but the outcome will only satisfy the complainants when the mastermind of the murder is established. “We find the sentence lawful, founded and just. This is […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik – April 28, 2014) Outside a Moscow stadium one night in 2006, deputy central bank chief Andrei Kozlov was walking to his car after playing soccer when two men opened fire, pumping bullets into his head and neck and killing his driver. Days before the murders, the man leading Russia’s fight against […]
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MOSCOW, April, 28 (RIA Novosti) – An assassination attempt on Kharkiv mayor Gennady Kernes is further proof that it is impossible to hold elections in Ukraine at the moment, presidential candidate Oleh Tsarev told RIA Novosti Monday. “I think that the fact that politicians are being shot here is abnormal, it once again proves that at the moment it is […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – laire Bigg and Daisy Sindelar – February 4, 2014) After being kidnapped on January 22, Dmytro Bulatov says he was kept blindfolded for eight days as his abductors beat him, sliced off part of his ear, drove nails through his hands, and finally left him for dead in a forest. Through the ordeal, he never once […]
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(Interfax – January 20, 2014) The Moscow City Court has postponed until January 27 the trial of the criminal case involving the killing of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Thus, the court has granted a request filed by one of the defense lawyers, who needed more time to read the case materials, an Interfax correspondent has reported. The prosecutor was […]
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WASHINGTON, December 9 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) The United States and Russia face a potential renewed blacklist war as a deadline looms this week for Washington to report on controversial sanctions against alleged Russian rights abusers. The US administration has until Saturday to submit to Congress its inaugural annual report on any additions to the so-called “Magnitsky […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – November 28, 2013) A former senior federal prosecutor has accused her one-time colleagues of illegally intervening in the probe into the 2009 death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as committing legal violations in connection with other high-profile cases. Galina Tarasova, who says she was fired from the Prosecutor General’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – November 27, 2013) Seven years and 51 days have passed since journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed in her apartment building in central Moscow, but so far only one person has been convicted in connection with the crime, leaving her family and former colleagues frustrated with the lack of progress in the case. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 20, 2013) The United States may publish the extended version of the “Magnitsky list” as early as next month, while Europe is expected to pass a similar measure, Hermitage Capital investment fund president and bill supporter William Browder said. The Magnitsky Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in December 2012 and named after late […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 13, 2013) Lawmakers from 21 countries have formed a commission to promote sanctions against Russian officials implicated in the prison death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. The Justice for Sergei Magnitsky commission, which was holding its inaugural meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, includes lawmakers from Canada, Britain, France, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – November 7, 2013) “Who was killed in your family?” A man in a beret in his early 60s asked me as he joined the long queue of people. We were both attending the annual recital of the names of the victims of political repressions in Russia by the Solovetsky […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 7 (Interfax) – Investigators are preparing to charge former Russian parliamentarian Mikhail Glushchenko with masterminding the assassination of State Duma member Galina Starovoitova in 1998, Glushchenko’s lawyer Alexander Afanasyev told Interfax on Thursday. “Both defense lawyers representing Mikhail Ivanovich [Glushchenko] were officially notified that at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow he will be charged under Part 3 of Article […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jeremy Hodges – October 14, 2013) Hermitage Capital Management founder William Browder won the dismissal of a U.K. libel case filed by a former Russian policeman accused of playing a part in the 2009 death of legal and tax adviser Sergei Magnitsky. Judge Peregrine Simon ruled that the U.K. wasn’t the right jurisdiction for the ex-policeman, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 7, 2013) Forty-seven percent of Russians polled in September still have queries about who could benefit from the killing of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya seven years ago. Fifteen percent of respondents said the opposition forces, “interested in destabilization” could have been behind the killing, according to Levada Center pollster, and 12% said “Ramzan Kadyrov” and […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Richard Solash – WASHINGTON, September 18, 2013) As shady Russian businessmen snapped up luxury apartments in New York, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was confined to the few square meters of a Moscow jail cell. He would die there under suspicious circumstances in 2009 after revealing a scheme by a circle of high-ranking government officials and associates to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 15, 2013) Russian human rights activists do not believe the murder of Memorial center activist Natalya Estemirova in Grozny is being properly investigated and say there is no political will to find the actual murderers. “It is certain that there is no political will to solve this case,” Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the Civil Assistance […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 16, 2013) A defendant in the ongoing trial over the murder of prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and wounded near Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro on Wednesday evening, his lawyer said. Dzhabrail Makhmudov, who along with his two Chechen brothers Rustam and Ibragim is accused of being involved in the […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 6, 2013) The Federal Security Service (FSB) department for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has reopened an investigation into the 1998 assassination of State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova, Ruslan Linkov, Starovoitova’s former aide, told Interfax on Tuesday. “The investigation was reopened on August 1. It was done because certain investigative procedures can be conducted […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 7, 2013) One of Russia’s most revered priests, widely considered a “dissident priest” for his strong criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church, was stabbed to death on Monday night in the northwestern town of Pskov. Pavel Adelgeim, 75, was found dead by his wife late Monday, with the suspect still at […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The trial of the alleged murderers of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya that is starting on Wednesday will be “patently illegitimate,” the journalist’s son and daughter said on Tuesday, refusing to attend the trial. “In our absence and that of our lawyers, the judge began to select jurors and approved the jury,” Ilya Politkovsky […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – July 22, 2013) After the latest in a series of murders in the North Caucasus, Russian Duma deputies are proposing an increase on the maximum prison sentence for violence against journalistsfrom six years to ten. On Wednesday, July 10, a bill toughening the penalty for offenses against journalists was […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yan Shenkman, RBTH – July 16, 2013) In the night between the 16th and 17th of July 1918 the family of Russia’s last Emperor, Nicolas II, was killed in Ekaterinburg. RBTH investigates the identities and lives of the killers of the tsar. Even now, 115 years after the murder of Russia’s last czar, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) Russia’s Investigative Committee has denied allegations that the investigation of the 2009 assassination of Chechen human rights activist Natalya Estemirova has stalled and reiterated that, contrary to what is claimed by rights defenders, it sees militant Akhazur Bashayev as the primary suspect in the case. Investigations into Estemirova’s murder “have never been suspended” and […]
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(Interfax – July 12, 2013) Aleksey Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee, has warned against “whipping up” tension in relations between Russia and the USA, commenting on reports that Washington is planning to expand the Magnitskiy list after a court in Moscow found the late lawyer, Sergey Magnitskiy, and the head of the Hermitage Capital Management fund, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 12, 2013) The Russian Foreign Ministry has urged Washington to stow plans for an extended Magnitsky List and warned it would react sternly, given the rights abuses the United States is committing globally. “We urged the U.S. administration to demonstrate wisdom and not to take steps that would spoil the atmosphere of bilateral relations,” Russian Foreign […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin has denounced the postmortem conviction of late Hermitage Capital auditor Sergei Magnitsky by Moscow’s Tverskoi Court. “I object to trying people post mortem. There is an element of some ancient pagan mentality in this,” Lukin told Interfax on Thursday. “Then let’s arrange the trial of Ivan the Terrible […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) British investment fund Hermitage Capital has attacked Thursday’s posthumous conviction of its lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and in absentia conviction of its chief executive William Browder. “This trial reflects the authorities’ disrespect for fundamental international legal values and personal rights and freedoms,” Hermitage said in a statement made available to Interfax. Moscow’s Tverskoi Court convicted […]
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(Interfax – July 9, 2013) Russian veteran human rights defender, Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) head Lyudmila Alexeyeva has supported the British ban on 60 Russians on the Magnitsky List from entering the UK. “Certainly, I would like people involved in the Magnitsky case to be punished here, in Russia. That would have displayed our wish to become a democracy, put […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 5, 2013) A former tax inspector included on a draft version of the Magnitsky List of Russian officials banned from the United States for human rights abuses has become a suspect for Russian investigators looking into a huge tax scam, Kommersant newspaper reported Friday. Olga Tsymai, a former employee of the Federal Tax Service, […]
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