Truth, duty, honesty
Russian journalist anna Politkovskaya's courage will live forever
By Judi McLeod
Sunday, October 8, 2006
Still no word from the Kremlin.
Hundreds of people have now gathered in central Moscow to honour the memory of their world celebrated journalist, anna Politkovskaya--a single day after her murder.
They come bearing flowers, candles and prayers, many of them softly weeping.
anna Politkovskaya was every inch a true-life heroine.
In a world where world leaders, politicians, bureaucrats and other journalists are taking the path of least resistance, anna Politkovskaya bravely plodded on --even while knowing her enemies wanted her dead.
The prominent Russian journalist, celebrated worldwide as a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions in Chechnya, was found dead in Moscow.
adding to the deep sorrows of her many mourners is the human touch that supermarket bags of groceries were found in her car. The 48-year-old journalist was the mother of a daughter and a son.
The reporter who called world attention to Putin's Russia was found shot dead on Saturday in a lift at her block of flats in the Russian capital.
Police sources quoted by Russian media say Ms. Politkovskaya was shot execution style, three times in the body and once in the head.
Posters carried by mourners at the site describe her killing as politically motivated in open defiance to the Kremlin.
There are many who believe that death escaped Ms. Politkovskaya the first time enemies tried to silence her forever.
The free world waited anxiously for word when she fell seriously ill with food poisoning in 2004, which many believed to be the first attempt on her life.
How could it have been a coincidence that the ward-winning journalist fell sick while on her way to report on the Besnian school siege?
Ms. Politkovskaya, whose writing appeared in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, made her reputation exposing rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya. She also acted as a negotiator with the Chechen rebels who held a siege in a Moscow theatre in 2002.
Vitaly Yasroshevsky, deputy editor of Novaya Gaeta, believes Ms.Politkovskaya was killed because of her work.
"The first thing that comes to mind is that anna was killed for her professional activities. We don't see any other motive for this terrible crime," he told the Reuters news agency.
Oleg Panifilov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, confirmed that Ms. Politkovskaya had frequently received threats.
"There are journalists who have this fate hanging over them. I always thought something would happen to anna, first of all because of Chechnya," he told the associated Press news agency. "Whenever the question arose whether there is honest journalism in Russia, almost every time the first name that came to mind was Politkosvskaya," he added.
In 2001, e-mail threats claiming a Russian police officer she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians wanted to take his revenge, forced her to flee to Vienna, austria.
In an interview with BBC two years ago, Ms. Politkovskaya said she believed it was her duty to continue reporting, even in the face of death threats.
"I am absolutely sure that risk is (a) usual part of my job; job of (a) Russian journalist, and I cannot stop because it's my duty," she said.
"I think the duty of doctors is to give health to their patients, the duty of the singer is to sing. The duty of (the) journalist (is) to write what this journalist sees in the reality. It's only one duty."
Citations and honours bestowed on anna Politkovskaya during an amazing career include: First Prize of the Lettre Ulysses award (2003); Hermann-Kesten Medal, PEN Germany (2003); Courage in Journalism award from the International Women's Media Foundation (2002); Most Courageous Defence of Free Expression from Index on Censorship (2002); Special award of amnesty International (2001).
The world of journalism will be a much emptier place without her.
But the coward who shot anna Politkovskaya to death, and those he represents will soon come to know that the singer may be gone from the stage but her song already rebounds throughout the free world.
GLOBE EDITORIaL
Putin's meltdown
October 7, 2006
RUSSIaN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin has been throwing a temper tantrum over Georgia's arrest of four members of Russian military intelligence for spying. Putin's anger is not confined to the immediate humiliation of having the Russian officers paraded on television by Georgia's defiant president, Mikhail Saakashvili. and Putin's retaliatory moves -- his imposition of transport and postal sanctions amounting to an economic blockade of the former Soviet republic -- have only made a dangerous situation worse.
Saakashvili's taunting of the Russian bear and Putin's intemperate reaction are dangerous because they risk inflating a regional quarrel into a larger geopolitical conflict. They could exacerbate the Kremlin's fraying relations with the West, inducing a Cold War coda without the ideological overtones of the original, and cast a shadow over such crucial concerns as energy security, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the struggle against Islamist terrorism.
The great fear underlying Putin's excessive response to Saakashvili's provocation is that Georgia is slipping away from Russia's sphere of influence. The four Russians were arrested shortly after NaTO approved an accelerated dialogue with Georgia suggesting admission soon to the western military alliance.
Saakashvili struck directly at the Kremlin's pride when he held a press conference at which the four Russians were handed over to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. ``The message to Russia is: `Enough is enough,' " he declared. ``The rules of the game should change. It's no longer the Soviet empire, and we are no longer a rebellious nation that is rebelling against its central government. We are an independent and free nation and should be respected as such."
This is the heart of the matter: Georgia's refusal to be a vassal state in Russia's backyard and Putin's humiliation at losing control of both Georgia and Ukraine, among the most valuable holdings in the old Soviet empire.
To make things worse, Putin has hinted that the United States is behind Saakashvili's act of defiance. The reality is that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the Kremlin's request, phoned Saakashvili and asked him to release the four detained Russians. It was only after this helpful intervention -- after the return of the four intelligence officers -- that Putin cut road, rail, air, and sea traffic to Georgia and ordered a crackdown on Georgian workers and businesspeople in Russia.
america and Russia need each other's cooperation too much, on too many grave issues, to allow the Kremlin's quarrel with Georgia to be blown out of proportion. The Bush administration needs to work hard at arranging a more civilized divorce between Georgia and Russia.
Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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