Anna Politkovskaya: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Russian journalist (1958–2006)}}
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Politkovskaya's initial employment was with ''[[Izvestia]]'', the organ of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]], in 1982.<ref name="LR">{{citation |title=Политковская, Анна. Журналист "Новой газеты", убита в октябре 2006 года |publisher=[[Lenta.ru]] |date=16 October 2006 |url=https://lenta.ru/lib/14161170 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061109062650/https://lenta.ru/lib/14161170/ |archive-date=9 November 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Simon|2007|p=viii}} According to her ex-husband in 2011, it was a brief internship in the [[mailroom]]{{efn|Other sources say that she wrote for the newspaper,{{sfn|Finkelstein|2008|p=132}}<ref>{{citation |last=Penketh |first=Anne |title=Anna Politkovskaya |work=[[The Independent]] |date=9 October 2006 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/anna-politkovskaya-419307.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706111957/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/anna-politkovskaya-419307.html |archive-date=6 July 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> or that she joined the editorial staff.<ref name="LR" />}} and her only journalistic engagement during the 1980s as he failed to assist her career. In her son's words, until the mid-1990s she "wasn't even a journalist, she was a [[housewife]]". Her own later account stated that "Sasha's work ... kept me from doing my own thing". She is said by Politkovsky to have worked temporarily as a cleaner at the [[Mayakovsky Theatre]].{{sfn|Jackman|2016|pp=22–23, 25–26}} However, after the spell at ''Izvestia'' she soon held another internship at the ''Vozdushnyi transport'' (''Воздушный транспорт'', the [[House organ|in-house magazine]] of the [[Ministry of Civil Aviation (Soviet Union)|Ministry of Civil Aviation]]<ref>{{citation |title=Воздушный транспорт: газета гражданской авиации СССР / главный редактор Василий Карпий |date=1978 |publisher=[[Système universitaire de documentation]] |access-date=11 November 2024 |url=https://www.sudoc.fr/194734870 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111025101/https://www.sudoc.fr/194734870 |archive-date=11 November 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Vozdušnyj transport: °ekspress-informacija; otečestvennyj opyt |publisher=[[German National Library of Science and Technology]] |access-date=11 November 2024 |url=https://opac.tib.eu/DB=1/LNG=EN/CLK?IKT=12&TRM=12917968X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111025248/https://opac.tib.eu/DB=1/LNG=EN/CLK?IKT=12&TRM=12917968X |archive-date=11 November 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>),<ref name="LR" />{{sfn|Jackman|2016|pp=18, 27}}{{sfn|Simon|2007|p=viii}}{{sfn|Finkelstein|2008|p=132}} as a reporter and editor of the [[Aeroflot]] emergencies and accidents section. As recalled by Politkovsky, her first travel assignment was on the [[Aeroflot Flight 3352|plane crash in Omsk]] (1984).{{sfn|Jackman|2016|p=27}} The [[correspondent]] role came with an unlimited air ticket, which enabled her to travel widely across the country and observe Russian society.{{sfn|Jackman|2016|p=27}}{{sfn|Simon|2007|p=viii}} She was privy to developments in the media sphere through her husband, "Russia's number one television journalist" from 1987 onwards, and shared his political interests.{{sfn|Jackman|2016|pp=22–25}} In the 1990 film about the Politkovsky family, she was portrayed as her husband's "assistant".{{sfn|Jackman|2016|p=25}} By the time of the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, she experienced threats against their family, which forced her teenage son's exile in London in 1992.{{sfn|Jackman|2016|pp=24}} She was a [[columnist]] for the socio-political newspaper ''{{ill|Megapolis-Express|ru|Мегаполис-экспресс}}'',<ref name="LR" /> founded in 1990, before it turned into a [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] serving [[fake news]] in September 1994.<ref>{{citation |last=Pishchikova |first=Evgeniya |title=Наивная желтая пресса. "Мегаполис-экспресс" первым сошел с плодоносного поля |publisher={{ill|GlobalRus.ru|ru}} |date=8 July 2005 |url=http://potrebnosti.globalrus.ru/pragmatics/778082 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090523101712/http://potrebnosti.globalrus.ru/pragmatics/778082 |archive-date=23 May 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> She was professionally involved in the [[Creative unions in the Soviet Union|creative union]] Eskart – which by 1991 offered advertising services through its partnership with major media outlets, such as the [[Radio in the Soviet Union|All-Union Radio]], the organ of the [[Ministry of Railways (Soviet Union)|Ministry of Railways]] ''{{ill|Gudok (newspaper)|lt=Gudok|ru|Гудок (газета)}}'', ''{{ill|Kuranty (1990–1998)|lt=Kuranty|ru|Куранты (газета)}}'', ''[[Literaturnaya Gazeta]]'', ''[[Moskovskiye Novosti]]'', ''{{ill|My (magazine)|lt=My|ru|Мы (журнал)}}'', ''[[Ogoniok]]'', ''[[Oktyabr (magazine)|Oktyabr]]'', ''[[Kultura (newspaper)|Sovetskaya Kultura]]'', ''{{ill|Stolitsa|ru|Столица (журнал)}}'', and ''[[Trud (Russian newspaper)|Trud]]''<ref>{{citation |title=ЭСКАРТ. Ваш "Бизнес-блокнот" |journal=[[Ogoniok]] |volume=3313 |issue=3 |date=12–19 January 1991 |url=https://papavlad.ucoz.ru/index/zhurnal_ogonjok_1991_03_tekst_3/0-587 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111024529/https://papavlad.ucoz.ru/index/zhurnal_ogonjok_1991_03_tekst_3/0-587 |archive-date=11 November 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> – and in the [[Saint Petersburg|St Petersburg]] publishing house Paritet, founded in 1992.<ref>{{citation |title=Издательство Паритет |publisher=Paritet Publishing House |access-date=11 November 2024 |url=https://book-paritet.narod.ru/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008005325/https://book-paritet.narod.ru/ |archive-date=8 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>.<ref name="LR" />

In 2001, Politkovskaya fled to [[Vienna]], following e-mail threats that a police officer whom she had accused of atrocities against civilians in Chechnya was looking to take revenge. Corporal [[Sergey_Lapin_Sergey Lapin (police_officerpolice officer)|Sergey Lapin]] was arrested and charged in 2002, but the case against him was closed the following year. In 2005, Lapin was convicted and jailed for the torture and subsequent disappearance of a Chechen civilian detainee, the case exposed by Politkovskaya in her article "Disappearing People".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6031887.stm|title=Russians remember killed reporter|publisher=BBC|date=8 October 2006|access-date=9 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408110913/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6031887.stm|archive-date=8 April 2008|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=guardian-lapin>[https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1940816,00.html "Siberian police 'obstructing Politkovskaya murder inquiry'"], 6 November 2006.</ref> A former fellow officer of Lapin's was among the suspects in Politkovskaya's murder, on the theory that the motive might have been revenge for her part in Lapin's conviction.<ref name=guardian-lapin/>

Politkovskaya was found dead in the lift, in her block of apartments in central Moscow on 7 October 2006, Putin's birthday.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rykovtseva|first1=Yelena|title=Политковская и Путин. День смерти и день рождения. Все, что Анна Политковская писала о Владимире Путине в "Новой газете" |trans-title=Politkovskaya and Putin. Day of death and birthday. Everything that Anna Politkovskaya wrote about Vladimir Putin in Novaya Gazeta|url=http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/24351889.html|publisher=[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]]|date=7 October 2011}}</ref> She had been shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once in the head at close range.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kommersant.com/p711307/r_530/Murder_reporter_Politkovskaya/ |title=Journalist Gives Her Life for Her Profession|publisher=Kommersant.com |date=9 October 2006 |access-date=1 August 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/oct/10/russia.media | title=The only good journalist ... | date=10 October 2006 | work=[[The Guardian]] | access-date=19 October 2015}}</ref><ref>[[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]], ''The Corporation. Russia and the KGB in the Age of President Putin'', {{ISBN|1-59403-246-7}}, Encounter Books; 25 February 2009, [http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/thecorporation/ description] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225041103/http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/thecorporation/ |date=25 February 2012 }}, pp. 479–452.{{page? needed|date=August 2021}}{{clarify|date=August 2021}}</ref><ref>Boris Volodarsky, "The KGB's Poison Factory", Frontline Books, 2009, page 251.</ref> There was widespread [[International reaction to the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya|international reaction to the assassination]].

Russia's [[Investigative Committee of Russia|Investigative Committee]] – with help from the Belgian police – arrested the man suspected of killing Anna Politkovskaya, after he was detained in the [[Chechnya|Chechen Republic]] and transported to Moscow for questioning.{{cncitation needed|date=February 2020}}

In August 2011, Russian prosecutors claimed they were close to solving the murder after detaining Dmitry Pavliuchenkov, a former policeman, who they alleged was the principal organizer.<ref name="FT 24 August 2011">{{cite news |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a53c875a-ce68-11e0-b755-00144feabdc0.html |title=Russia 'close to solving journalist's murder' |author=Charles Clover |date=24 August 2011 |newspaper=Financial Times |access-date=24 August 2011}}</ref> The following month ''[[Kommersant]] Daily'' reported that, according to Pavlyuchenkov, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev was the one negotiating with the person who ordered the killing, and although Pavlyuchenkov did not know the name, he suspected he could be the fugitive businessman and Putin critic [[Boris Berezovsky (businessman)|Boris Berezovsky]].{{cncitation needed|date=February 2020}}

In May 2014, five men were convicted of murdering Politkovskaya, including three defendants who had been acquitted in a previous trial. The defendants were three Chechen brothers, one of whom was accused of shooting Politkovskaya in the lobby of her Moscow apartment building.{{cncitation needed|date=February 2020}} In June 2014 the men were sentenced to prison, two of them, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev and his nephew Rustam Makhmudov, receiving life sentences. It is still unclear who ordered or paid for the contract killing.<ref name="nytimes-sentences-june2014">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/world/europe/moscow-court-sentences-5-to-prison-for-contract-killing-of-anna-politkovskaya.html|title=Moscow Court Sentences 5 to Prison for Contract Killing of Journalist|last=Roth|first=Andrew|newspaper=The New York Times|date=9 June 2014|access-date=9 June 2014}}</ref>

<blockquote>([[Classified information#Top secretSecret (TS)|TS]]//[[Sensitive Compartmented Information#Control systems|SI]]/REL TO [[Five Eyes|USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL]]) Russian Federal Intelligence Services (probably [[Federal Security Service|FSB]]) are known to have targeted the webmail account of the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On 5 December 2005, RFIS initiated an attack against the account annapolitovskaya@US Provider1, by deploying malicious software which is not available in the public domain. It is not known whether the attack is in any way associated with the death of the journalist.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2016/12/29/top-secret-snowden-document-reveals-what-the-nsa-knew-about-previous-russian-hacking/|title=Top-Secret Snowden Document Reveals What the NSA Knew About Previous Russian Hacking|author=Sam Biddle|date=29 December 2016|publisher=The Intercept}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/anna-politkovskaya-intellipedia-redacted.pdf|title=Intellipedia Anna Politkovskaya article}}</ref></blockquote>

* 2001: [[Amnesty International]] Global Award for Human Rights Journalism{{cncitation needed|date=October 2019}}

* 2002: [[PEN American Center]] Freedom to Write Award{{cncitation needed|date=October 2019}}

* 2004: [[Manuel Vázquez Montalbán|Vázquez Montalbán]] Award of International Journalism{{cncitation needed|date=October 2019}}

* 2006: International Journalism Award named after [[Tiziano Terzani]]{{cncitation needed|date=October 2019}}