Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches (65 page)

December. Reporter of the Year, National Union of Italian Reporters,
to Anna Politkovskaya who “died defending her right to bring the truth to the public, and people’s right to obtain truthful and free information.”

“Flouting the Law,” annual prize for journalism, awarded by the Open Russia Foundation.

For Valour, special award from the Artyom Borovik Prize committee.

2007

Paris. UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. “Anna Politkovskaya showed incredible courage and stubbornness in chronicling events in Chechnya after the whole world had given up on that conflict. Her dedication and fearless pursuit of the truth set the highest benchmark of journalism, not only for Russia but for the rest of the world. Indeed, Anna’s courage and commitment were so remarkable that we decided, for the first time, to award the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize posthumously.”

July. Washington, DC. John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award, the National Press Club. “Anna Politkovskaya, who never let death threats deter her from her remarkable reporting of the conflict in Chechnya, deserves to be remembered and honored for her courage and commitment to journalism.”

September. Washington, DC. Democracy Award to Spotlight Press Freedom, the National Endowment for Democracy. “Throughout her distinguished career as a Russian journalist, Anna was an outspoken advocate for human rights and an end to the devastating war in Chechnya.”

October 7. The first Anna Politkovskaya Award “to recognise women who are defending human rights in zones of war and conflict” was presented to Natalia Estemirova, “a close friend and colleague of Anna as well as a courageous human rights defender and freelance journalist, working in Chechnya for the human rights organization, Memorial.”

The Prize was instituted by Reach All Women in War, with the support of the Nobel Peace Prize winners Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as Elena Bonner, Tatiana Yankelevich,
President Václav Havel, Harold Pinter, The Hon. Zbigniew Brzezinski, André Glucksmann, Gloria Steinem, Sergey Kovalyov, Terry Waite, CBE, Susan Sarandon, Alexei Simonov, Gillian Slovo, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Marek Edelman (the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising), Elisabeth Rehn, Mariane Pearl, Adam Michnik, Asma Jahangir, Sister Helen Prejean, Ariel Dorfman, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Cunningham, Eve Ensler, John Sweeney, Jonathan Schell, Noam Chomsky, Marina Litvinenko, Lyudmila Alekseeva, Desmond O’Malley, Anne Nivat, Victor Fainberg, Lord Frank Judd, Lord Nicolas Rea, Lord Anthony Giddens, Lord Nazir Ahmed, Baroness Shirley Williams, Baroness Molly Meacher, Sir Nigel Rodley, Professor Yakin Erturk, Anna’s sister, Elena Kudimova, Natasha Kandic, Caroline McCormick, Sister Marya Grathwohl, Heidi Bradner, Meglena Kuneva, Elizabeth Kostova, Esther Chavez, John D. Panitza, Dubravka Ugresic, Katrina van den Heuvel, Victor Navasky, Aidan White, Holly Near, Elizabeth Frank, and many others. Natalia Estemirova said,

“I am proud to receive an award in Anna’s name and honoring what Anna stood for. This award is extremely important for me and my colleagues, because it will enable us to continue our work for human rights in Chechnya and to further help the victims of this war.

“Freedom is not something given to a person. Freedom matters only if you feel free inside yourself. Anna was an absolutely free person.

“I would like to say to the people of Europe: please do not forget that Chechnya is in Europe. Please know that we are human beings like you, we want the same things as you do. And do not ignore our suffering in exchange for cheap gas and oil. There is no such thing as suffering that can be contained behind closed doors without eventually also affecting all of us. Please stand up to protect our lives and to restore our human dignity, because in doing so, you help preserve your own.”

[Natalia Estermirova was abducted and murdered in Chechnya on July 15, 2009.]

^*
Ivan Kivelidi (1949–95) was Chairman of the Board of Rosbiznesbank. On August 1, 1995 an exotic poison was put in the telephone receiver in his office, and he died in hospital on August 5.

Glossary

People:

Alkhanov, Alu
: elected President of Chechnya in a much-disputed election in August 2004. He was dismissed by Putin in February 2007.

Basayev, Shamil
: a leading commander of the Chechen guerrillas when Russia invaded Chechnya in 1994. Russian bombing killed 11 members of his family, after which he became a pitiless warrior. Accused of masterminding the hostage-takings at
Nord-Ost
and the First School in Beslan, both of which the Russian Government ended bloodily. Killed in an explosion in 2006.

Berezovsky, Boris
: became an oligarch in the Yeltsin era and built a media empire that aided Yeltsin’s re-election, only to fall out with Putin over his opposition to the Chechen War and support for liberal and democratic causes in Russia. Now living in London. Accused Putin of responsibility for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a close associate, in 2006.

Dudayev Djohar
: local politician who rose by referendum to become President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1991 and then unilaterally declared independence from the Soviet Union. He coordinated Chechnya’s forces during the First Chechen War and encouraged the guerilla operations which followed that. Akhmat-hadji Kadyrov, whom he appointed Mufti of Ichkeria, declared
jihad
on Russia. Dudayev was killed in April 1996 by Russian missiles after his mobile phone was intercepted.

Fridinsky, Sergey:
Deputy Public Prosecutor for the Southern Federal Region, in charge of the failed attempt to extradite Akhmed Zakayev from the UK to Russia.

Gorbachev, Mikhail
: last General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (1984–90) and first executive President of the USSR (1990–1). His attempts to democratise the Communist regime led to its collapse.

Gryzlov, Boris
: close ally of Putin and Interior Minister 2001–03, since when he has been Speaker of the State Duma.

Kadyrov, Akhmat
: pro-Moscow Chechen Mufti, later “President” of Chechnya, assassinated the day after attending Putin’s second-term inauguration in the Kremlin.

Kadyrov, Ramzan
: fought against Russia in the First Chechen War of 1994–6. Changed to support Russia in the Second War (1999 to the present). Appointed Prime Minister after the assassination of his father, Akhmat Kadyrov. Heads a paramilitary force.

Khodorkovsky, Mikhail
: formerly Russia’s wealthiest oligarch and founder of Menatep Bank and Yukos oil company. Supported democratic opposition parties and proposed the introduction of transparent Western business practices. Fell foul of the Putin regime, was arrested in 2003 for alleged tax irregularities and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.

Maskhadov, Aslan
: foremost Chechen military leader in the First Chechen War; elected President in 1997 and signed a peace treaty with Yeltsin in the Kremlin, but was unable to prevent a split between secular nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists. Killed by the FSB in 2005, apparently while attempting to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the conflict. His body was not returned to his family for burial.

Mironov, Sergey
: since 2001 Speaker of the Soviet of the Federation, the upper house of the Russian Parliament. Since 2003 Chairman of
the Russian Party of Life, which merged in 2006 with the Rodina and Russian Pensioners’ Parties to form the Russian Justice Party, which he leads. Pro-Putin.

Pamfilova, Ella
: Duma Deputy in the 1990s and presidential candidate in 2000. Chairwoman of the Presidential Commission for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.

Putin, Vladimir
: resigned from the KGB in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Director of the FSB (1998–9) and succeeded Boris Yeltsin as President of the Russian Federation in 2000. Re-elected in 2004. His term as President expired in 2008 and he now serves as Prime Minister.

Saakashvili, Mikheil
: leader of the 2003 bloodless Rose Revolution in Georgia, which obliged Eduard Shevardnadze to step down after elections considered to have been rigged. Became President of Georgia in 2004. Successfully defused separatist confrontations in Adjara and Abkhazia, but still has serious problems with South Ossetia.

Surkov, Vladislav
: foremost Kremlin ideologist and spin doctor, who held senior positions in Menatep and Alfa Banks during the 1990s. Public-relations director of ORT television company (1998–9). Deputy Head of Putin’s Presidential Administration. Himself half-Chechen, Surkov is believed to be the main supporter within the Kremlin of Ramzan Kadyrov and the policy of Chechenisation of the war in Chechnya.

Yavlinsky, Grigoriy
: author in 1990 of an unsuccessful program to transform Russia from a communist to a free-market economy in two years. Co-founded the Yabloko political party in 1995, which later attempted to impeach President Yeltsin. Refused to run for the presidency in 2004 on the grounds that Putin had rigged the 2003 parliamentary elections to ensure no Yabloko representation in the Duma.

Yeltsin, Boris
: first President of the Russian Federation (1991–9). Succeeded in banning the Communist Party within the Russian Republic and dismantling the USSR in favor of a Commonwealth of Independent States. Believed to have started the First Chechen War in order to retain his personal power with Army backing, and to have handed over power to Vladimir Putin in 1999 to outflank his rivals’ bid for the presidency in 2000.

Zakayev, Akhmed
: Prime Minister of the separatist Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, hero of the resistance in the First Chechen War, representative of Chechnya in 1996 at peace talks which led to a Russian withdrawal, then Deputy Prime Minister, later Foreign Minister and Prime Minister. Wounded early in the Second Chechen War (1999 to the present), Zakayev left Chechnya in 2000 and became the most prominent representative of the Maskhadov government in Western Europe. Granted political asylum by the UK in 2003 and lives in London.

Zhirinovsky, Vladimir
: outspoken populist and ultra-nationalist politician, and leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party. Commented on the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 that “a traitor must be eliminated using any methods.”

Zyazikov, Murat
: President of Ingushetia, a republic that borders and has close ethnic links with Chechnya. A member of the KGB in the 1980s, he was elected President (with heavy FSB involvement) in 2004.

Organizations:

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
: established in 1991 and loosely binding all the former republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics except for Georgia and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Duma
: the Russian Parliament, which, under the Yeltsin Constitution, replaced the Supreme Soviet in 1993. Consists of 450 elected Deputies.

FSB (Federal Security Bureau)
: the present domestic state-security organization; successor to the Federal Counter-Espionage Service.

KGB (Committee of State Security)
: the Soviet secret police, replaced in 1991 by the Federal Counter-Espionage Service after its involvement in the attempted anti-Gorbachev coup.

Liberal Democrats
: the first opposition party to be registered, in 1989, after the breaking of the Communist Party’s monopoly. A confusingly named, vociferous nationalist party led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, believed to have been subsidised by Yeltsin to draw support from the Communist Party.

OMON (Special Operations Unit of the Militia)
: first established in 1979 to protect the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow from terrorist attack. Subsequently used as riot police, a unit is to be found in every territory of the Russian Federation.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
: the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization which called in 1999 for a political settlement in Chechnya and was henceforth regarded with increasing suspicion by Russia.

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
: the oldest international parliamentary assembly, composed of democratically elected members and established on the basis of an intergovernmental
treaty, its recommendations on human rights issues in particular carry weight in Europe.

Russian Federation
: successor state, from 1991, to the USSR, but does not include the USSR’s autonomous republics.

Union of Right Forces
: liberal party formed in 1999 from a number of small parties dedicated to introducing free-market reforms and sharply critical of Putin’s curtailment of democratic freedoms. Officially polled 4 per cent in the 2003 parliamentary elections, depriving it of Duma representation, which requires 5 per cent support, prompting widespread suspicion of electoral fraud by the Kremlin.

United Russia
: party created in 2001 by the Kremlin to support Vladimir Putin; holds a constitutional majority in the Duma.

Yabloko
: liberal party set up in 1995 in reaction to infighting within the democratic camp; speaks out against infringements of freedom of the press and of democratic political practices, supports Russia’s ultimate integration into the European Union, opposes the war in Chechnya and has called for the removal of Putin’s regime by “constitutional means.”

Others:

Chechnya
: situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus and predominantly Sunni Muslim. Most of its economic potential has been destroyed in the two Chechen wars, together with huge loss of combatant and civilian life. According to the Russian Government, more than US $2 billion have been spent on reconstruction since 2000, though the Russian economic monitoring agency considers that no more than US $350 million were spent as intended.