Politkovskaya's Murderers Divided into Three
// The police, Putin's opponents and associates of Kadyrov
Anna Politkovskaya was buried today in Troekurovskoe Cemetery in Moscow. The Novaya gazeta reporter was murdered last Saturday. The investigation of her killing has not gotten far in the two days since then. Investigators are using three main theories – that her killing was the revenge of police who were imprisoned as a result of her investigations, or a conspiracy among the opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, or the revenge of Chechen rebels who went over to the federal side.
A meeting was held at the Prosecutor General's Office last night for investigators to brief Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin on their progress in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case. So far, they have not even been able to create a clear composite sketch of the murderer. The description of the killer and his possible accomplice received from witnesses is at variance with the image seen in video recordings made at the entrance to Politkovskaya's apartment building on Lesnaya St., where she was killed, or at Ramstore, where she made her last purchases. The records of her recent phone calls did not yield any information on the killer either. Investigators suggest that there were two groups involved in her killing, with one group following her car and informing the murderer of her arrival home. The murderer allowed her to enter the elevator in her building ahead of him, then shot her in the back and head. He left the weapon at the scene and fled. Experts have been unable to recreate the serial number filed off the pistol, so its origin remains unknown.
Kommersant has learned that three theories about Politkovskaya's killing have been pursued in investigator's meetings leading up to their report to Grin. One of those connects the crime with policemen in Nizhnvartovsk. Politkovskaya, working with the Memorial human rights center, that police from that Siberian city kidnapped, tortured and killed civilians while serving in Chechnya in 2001. After the publication of those findings in Novaya gazeta and other media, a criminal case was initiated against those policemen. One of them, Sergey Lapin, who used the codename Cadet in radio communications, remained at large for a lengthy period but was eventually sentenced to 11 years in prison. This version of events arose after investigators remembered that Lapin had threatened Politkovskaya while on the run. “You have ten days to publish a retraction. Otherwise the policemen you have hired to protect you will be powerless to help,” Lapin told Politkovskaya in one of his e-mail messages. Lapin also told her that he had been trained in a snipers' school and was armed and heading for Moscow. The prosecutor in Nizhnevartovsk charged Lapin with making threats against Politkovskaya's life, but the policeman's father Vadim Lapin told Kommersant that the case was dropped for lack of evidence. “When they killed Politkovskaya, I immediately thought they would think about my son,” the elder Lapin said. Investigators note that, after Lapin's sentencing, several other Nizhnevartovsk policemen were charged, and they also had a motive for revenge against the journalist.
Kommersant has learned that investigators are also discussing the possibility a conspiracy among opponents of Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov. Under that scenario, the journalist's killing was intentionally timed to the Russian president's birthday to undermine his authority, especially in the West. The name of political emigrant Boris Berezovsky was mentioned in that context.
“I am proud that Anna Politkovskaya, especially in the last few years, very often came to me for advice and commentary,” Berezovsky told Kommersant. “He considered me someone who thought about Russia and like-minded.” Concerning possible suspicions about him, Berezovsky commented that “the regime attributes everything bad that happens in Russia to its enemies, and very often to me.”
The idea that the murder of the journalist was intended to cast suspicion on people associated with Kadyrov is being pursued as well. Several prominent Chechens are being investigated who had been in conflict with the Chechen prime minister or were not interested in supporting him.
Politkovskaya made a number of enemies among influential Chechens because of her publications in Novaya gazeta. “I specially requested and read all, well, let's say almost all of Anna Politkovskaya's material,” Prosecutor of Chechnya Valery Kuznetsov told Kommersant. “Her publications helped me understand what happened in the republic before me,” added Kuznetsov, who has been in his post for just over a year, “and what is happening now. Even we can miss something… The last material of Politkovskaya's that I read was called “Vindictive Collusion.” I want to note that we will check all the facts in that article that are within the purview of our office. We have tried to react quickly and not wait for those observations to be read on high and an order be issued for us to do it.”
When asked if the Chechen prosecutor's office was checking the main hero of almost all of Politkovskaya's reportage, Prime Minister Kadyrov and the forces he controls, which are habitually referred to as “Kadyrovites” (Russian kadyrovtsy), Kuznetsov replied, “Kadyrovites are not specific. It is an ephemeral concept. In general, we always face the main task of checking facts, not persons. After we confirm the facts, we begin to work with people. Among those involved in criminal cases initiated by the republic's prosecutor based on Anna Politkovskaya's material, there are policemen and employees of the security services of the leaders of Chechnya.” As an example, the prosecutor mentioned the beating of interior forces soldiers by Chechen security forces after a car accident. “The let that fact slip by somehow,” Kuznetsov explained. “But, thanks to Politkovskaya, the prosecutor's office turned its attention to it and initiated a case of exceeding authority.”
“I can't say that we agree with all of Politkovskaya's opinions,” Kuznetsov conceded, “but there was undoubtedly a grain of rationality in many of her publications about the actions of Chechen security forces.”
Yury Senatorov, Alexander Zheglov, Sergey Mashkin, Vlad Trifonov; Nikolay Yablonsky, Ekaterinburg
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 10, 2006
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