SALON

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 1:50 PM UTC

Suspected Politkovskaya killer arrested

Murdered journalist, a sharp critic of the Kremlin, was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building in 2006

By

Topics: Russia,

Suspected Politkovskaya killer arrestedA spontaneous tribute at the entrance to slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya's Moscow apartment.

The suspected triggerman in the 2006 killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been arrested, Russian officials said Tuesday.

The suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, was arrested in Chechnya and is to be transferred to Moscow soon, said Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation body.

Politkovskaya was internationally renowned for her reports in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta on violence, police oppression and corruption in Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus gripped by an Islamic insurgency. She was a sharp critic of the Kremlin and of its appointed strongman in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

She was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building and her body was found in the building’s elevator.

The brutal attack drew worldwide attention to violence against journalists in Russia. Journalism watchdog groups have rated Russia as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters. Suspicions of government involvement in the killing were widespread, reinforced by the handling of the case since then.

Two of Makhmudov’s brothers and another man were accused of playing support roles in the killing, including as lookout and getaway driver. A court found them not guilty in 2009, but the Russian Supreme Court overruled the acquittal and sent the case back to prosecutors.

Novaya Gazeta deputy editor Sergei Sokolov welcomed the announcement of Makhmudov’s arrest.

“It’s a good possibility to bring closer a judgment of the guilty and expose a large number of participants,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency ITAR-Tass.

More Jim Heintz.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations