On Oct 9, 2006, at 10:49 AM, Chris Doss wrote:
> Jeeze, where were these people in the 1990s, when mob
> hits against journalists, politicians and
> businesspeople were a weekly occurrence in Russia?
Hey, those were the Yeltsin years, and Yeltsin was our man. Birth pangs of a New Russia, they were.
Who killed that Forbes guy whose name I can't remember? Was there a Western fuss about that?
Doug ************** Actually, from January 1, 1992—August 15, 2006, see: http://www.cpj.org/killed/killed_archives/stats.html, there were 42 journalists murdered in Russia. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists from 1992 to 1999 28 were killed in Russia from the following confirmed sources below.
A breakdown of the motivations for the murders include:
Chechnya related: 13 1993 Coup: 7 Crime organizations: 6 Other: 2
So another way of looking at this is while there was certainly some organized crime hits during the 1990s, the bulk of the murders were related to Chechnya. A slightly larger amount than organized crime related murders also occurred during the 1993 coup attempt. However, the issue of Chechnya seems to be a longer and more salient source with respect to these assasinations--the latest receiving considerable interest in the west. My take on this: all of this is horrendous but unfortunately not all news events generate front page news. This one has. Another way of looking at this is why has the conflict in Chechnya (and other places such as Sri Lanka) not generated more interest in the western press as has other long term conflicts such as Palestine?
************************** 0 in 1992
8 in 1993-- Dmitry Krikoryants, Expresskhronika, April 14, 1993, Grozny
Krikoryants, a correspondent for the Moscow-based weekly Expresskhronika in the Chechen city of Grozny, was murdered in his apartment by unknown assailants. After opening machine-gun fire on Krikoryants through the door of his apartment, the killers broke in, shot him several times in the head, and cut his throat. His colleagues fear that he was targeted because of his reporting on alleged Chechen government corruption in oil trading.
Yvan Scopan, TF-1 Television Company, October 3, 1993, Moscow Sergei Krasilnikov, Ostankino Television Company, October 3, 1993, Moscow Rory Peck, ARD Television Company, October 3, 1993, Moscow Igor Belozyorov, Ostankino State Broadcasting Company, October 3, 1993, Moscow Vladimir Drobyshev, Nature and Man magazine, October 3, 1993, Moscow Aleksandr Sidelnikov, Lennauchfilm Studio, October 4, 1993, Moscow Aleksandr Smirnov, Molodyozhny Kuryer, October 4, 1993, Moscow
Six journalists were killed in Moscow during an October 1993 Communist hardliner uprising against Russian President Boris Yeltsin, which left scores of people dead and wounded. One journalist died of a heart attack during the siege of the Ostankino Television Center.
Scopan, a cameraman for TF-1 Television Company; Krasilnikov, a video engineer for Ostankino Television Company; Peck, a cameraman for the German ARD Television Company; and Igor Belozyorov, an editor for the Ostankino State Broadcasting Company were killed in a gun battle between the hardliners and their supporters and pro-Yeltsin special forces units the control of Ostankino Television Center. Vladimir Drobyshev died of a heart attack during the clash.
Sidelnikov, a cameraman for Lennauchfilm Studio in St. Petersburg and Smirnov, with the weekly newspaper Molodyozhny Kuryer, were killed at the Russian Parliament house when President Yeltsin ordered the military to seize the building.
3 in 1994
Yuri Soltis, Interfax, June 12, 1994, Moscow
Soltis, a crime reporter for the independent news agency Interfax, was found beaten to death at a train station in the Stroitel district on the outskirts of Moscow. Soltis' colleagues told CPJ that they believe the reporter's murder is linked to his investigation of Russia's criminal underworld.
Dmitry Kholodov, Mosckovski Komsomolets, October 17, 1994, Moscow
Kholodov, an investigative reporter for the Moscow-based newspaper Mosckovski Komsomolets, was killed in a bomb blast at the newspaper's offices. Kholodov, who had been investigating mafia connections with the military, was killed when he opened a briefcase he had been led to believe contained secret documents exposing military corruption.
Cynthia Elbaum, free-lancer, December 22, 1994, Grozny
Elbaum, a 28-year-old American free-lance photographer, was killed during a Russian air raid over Grozny, capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
5 in 1995
Vladimir Zhitarenko, Krasnaya Zvezda, January 1, 1995, Grozny
On December 31, 1994, Zhitarenko, a correspondent for the Russian armed forces daily Krasnaya Zvezda, was hit by two bullets as he stepped out of an armored personnel carrier on a front line near the Chechen capital of Grozny. He died the next day.
Jochen Piest, Stern, January, 10, 1995, Chervlyonna
Piest, a correspondent for the German newsmagazine Stern, was killed in a suicide attack by a Chechen rebel in the village of Chervlyonna, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the Chechen capital, Grozny. The rebel was firing his submachine gun as he drove a small diesel locomotive at high speed toward an empty Russian troop train parked on the track. Piest was fatally hit by three bullets. Rossiskaya Gazeta correspondent Vladimir Sorokin was wounded in the attack. The gunman died when the locomotive collided with the military train.
Viatcheslav Rudnev, free-lancer, February 17, 1995, Kaluga
Rudnev, a free-lance journalist who worked in Kaluga, a district outside of Moscow, was found on February 13 in the hallway of his apartment building with a serious skull injury. He died four days later in the local hospital. Rudnev was known for his exposés of corruption and the criminal underworld, which were published in regional newspapers such as Znamya (Flag) and Vest (News). Rudnev had apparently received death threats prior to the incident and had reported them to the local police.
Vladislav Listyev, Russian Public Television (OTR), March 1, 1995, Moscow
Listyev, executive director of the newly formed public television station OTR, was shot dead as he entered his block of apartments. Listyev was one of Russia's best-known TV journalists. Some observers suspect his murder is connected to a controversy over whether to permit advertising on the new network.
Farkhad Kerimov, Associated Press TV, May 29, 1995, Chechnya
Kerimov, a cameraman with Associated Press TV, was shot dead in Chechnya. He was reported missing on May 27, and his body was found on May 29.
Natalya Alyakina, Focus and RUFA, June 17, 1995, Budyonnovsk
Alyakina, a journalist with dual Russian-German citizenship who was working for the German weekly magazine Focus and the radio news service RUFA, was killed by a Russian soldier. Russian army officials had given her permission to cross an army checkpoint leading into the southern city of Budyonnovsk, where she was going to report on a mass hostage taking by Chechen rebels, but she was shot shortly after passing through the roadblock.
Shamkhan Kagirov, Rossiskaya Gazeta and Vozrozheniye, December 13, 1995, near Grozny
Kagirov, a reporter for the Moscow daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta and the local paper Vozrozheniye, was shot and killed in an ambush in Chechnya. Kagirov and three local police officers were traveling in a car near Grozny when they were attacked. The three officers were also killed.
Vadim Alferyev, Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta, December 27, 1995, Krasnoyarsk
Alferyev, a crime reporter with Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta in Krasnoyarsk, was beaten to death in the entrance of his apartment building. Alferyev was writing about economic crimes in the region and had received repeated threats.
6 in 1996
Felix Solovyov, free-lancer February 26, 1996, Moscow
Solovyov, a free-lance photojournalist and a contributor to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, was fatally shot in central Moscow. Two years earlier, he had published a portfolio on Moscow mafia groups in three German newspapers. He was in Germany discussing story ideas two weeks before his death.
Viktor Pimenov, Vaynakh Television, March 11, 1996, Chechnya
Pimenov, a cameraman for Vaynakh Television, a Chechen station supported by Moscow-backed forces, was fatally shot in the back by a sniper positioned on the roof of a 16-story building in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Pimenov had been filming the devastation caused by the March 6-9 raid on the city.
Nadezhda Chaikova, Obshchaya Gazeta, March 30, 1996, Chechnya
Chaikova, a correspondent for the Russian weekly Obshchaya Gazeta who was known for her exposés of Russian military atrocities and close contacts with the Chechen rebels, was fatally shot, execution-style. Her body was discovered March 30 outside the Chechen village of Gehki. Chaikova was known to have filmed the destroyed village of Samashki, leveled in an attack by Russian federal troops. While Russian federal troops are suspected in her death, the killing may have been ordered by Chechen fighters acting on rumors spread by Russian secret police that she was a spy.
Nina Yefimova, Vozrozhdeniye, May 9, 1996, Chechnya
Yefimova, a reporter for Vozrozhdeniye, a local Russian-language newspaper in Grozny, was abducted with her mother from their apartment on May 8. Both were found dead from bullet wounds the next day in different parts of the city. Yefimova had written stories about crime in Chechnya.
Viktor Mikhailov, Zabaikalsky Rabochy, May 12, 1996, Chita
Mikhailov, a crime reporter for the daily Zabaikalsky Rabochy in southeastern Siberia, was beaten to death in broad daylight in the city center of Chita. He had been working on a series of articles about crime and the work of law enforcement agencies.
Ramzan Khadzhiev, Russian Public TV (ORT), August 11,1996, Chechnya
Khadzhiev, chief of the Northern Caucasus bureau of Russian Public Television (ORT), was fatally shot while attempting to leave Grozny by car with his wife and young son. ORT reported that Chechen rebels targeted Khadzhiev, an ethnic Chechen, because he supported the Moscow-installed government. But an unidentified passenger in their car told NTV, Russia's only independent television station, that Russian armored vehicles had opened fire on them.
0 in 1997 2 in 1998
Larisa Yudina, Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya, June 8, 1998, Elista
Yudina, editor of Sovietskaya Kalmykia Segodnya, the only alternative news outlet in Kalmykia, was found dead of multiple stab wounds and a fractured skull on the outskirts of Elista, capital of the Russian autonomous republic of Kalmykia. Yudina, a political activist, was frequently harassed and threatened for her exposés of local corruption and hard-line rule by the republic's president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. On the day of her disappearance, June 7, she went to meet a source who was to provide evidence of financial improprieties by local firms. Roreign and Russian press freedom groups had documented Yudina's troubles with Kalmyk authorities as a journalist and as local leader of the liberal opposition Yabloko party. The public outcry over her death caused the federal prosecutor to take over the case, and three suspects were arrested.
Anatoly Levin-Utkin, Yurichichesky Peterburg Segodnya, August 24, 1998, St. Petersburg
Levin-Utkin, deputy editor of the weekly newspaper Yuridichesky Peterburg Segodnya, was beaten unconscious on August 21 in the doorway of his apartment and robbed of his briefcase, which contained information for the next installment in an investigative series on rivalries between local financial and political figures. Cash and personal valuables were also taken.
The journalist suffered severe brain trauma and died on August 24 without ever having regained consciousness. The newspaper's editor said in an August 25 news conference that he believed the murder was connected to the series of investigative stories on the customs and secret services published in the first two issues of the 3-week-old newspaper, for which Levin-Utkin had done research and reporting. The editor said he had received phone calls demanding the names of those who worked on the series but had refused to divulge the information. Levin-Utkin had just finished collecting documents and photos for the third installment of the series on the day he was attacked. In a letter to President Boris Yeltsin, CPJ condemned the fatal beating and decried the intimidation of journalists and the climate of fear in Russia that stifles media freedom.
3 in 1999
Supian Ependiyev, Groznensky Rabochy, October 27, 1999, Grozny
Ependiyev, a veteran correspondent for the independent Chechnen weekly Groznensky Rabochy, was killed in a Russian army rocket attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny.
On the evening of October 27, several rockets hit a crowded outdoor market in central Grozny. About an hour after the attack, Ependiyev went to the scene to cover the carnage for his paper. As Ependiyev was leaving the site, a new round of rockets fell about 200 meters (60 feet) from the bazaar. He suffered severe shrapnel wounds and died in a Grozny hospital the next morning, according to CPJ sources.
In previous weeks, heavy Russian artillery fire had forced Groznensky Rabochy to move its editorial operations to Nazran, in neighboring Ingushetia. Ependiyev was one of two correspondents who remained in Grozny to cover the Russian military campaign against Islamist militants in Chechnya. Until his death, the reporter had been making the dangerous trek between Grozny and Nazran weekly to file stories.
Ramzan Mezhidov, TV Tsentr, October 29, 1999 Shamil Gigayev, Nokh Cho TV, October 29, 1999
Mezhidov, a free-lance cameraman working for the Moscow-based TV Tsentr, and Gigayev, a cameraman for independent Nokh Cho Television in Grozny, were killed during a Russian air attack on refugees fleeing Chechnya.
The journalists were covering a refugee convoy en route from Grozny to Nazran, in neighboring Ingushetia. As the convoy approached the Chechen town of Shaami Yurt, a Russian bomber fired several rockets from the air, hitting a busload of refugees. Despite warnings from colleagues traveling with them, Mezhidov and Gigayev left their vehicle to film the carnage. As they approached the bus, another Russian rocket hit a nearby truck, fatally wounding both journalists.