Michael Givel: Putin said last week the murder of the reporter, a scathing critic of the Kremlin, was a "disgusting crime". But he added Politkovskaya had "minimal influence on Russian political life" and that her murder did more harm to Russia than her reporting.
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That's about right. She wrote for Novaya Gazeta, which is a fringe yellow journalism publication read by a small sliver of the loopy intelligentsia. (If you don't believe me, anyone who can read Russian can read it here: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/) Politkovskaya wrote for a Western audience. She had no influence in Russia. She had discredited herself long ago.
Get real, people! She was no threat to the government. Which, I might add, could quite easily have arranged to have her step on a land mine or mysterously vanish in Chechnya if it had so desired, not killed in a mob hit in Moscow on Putin's birthday. They are not that stupid.
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