Russia Archives - Page 101 of 125

Russia: calls to investigate reporter’s death

Friends and colleagues have called for an investigation into the death of a Russian TV journalist, Olga Kotovskaya who plunged from the 14th storey of a building one day after winning a major legal case. She was a prominent journalist on Kaskad regional TV channel which broadcasts in the western enclave of Kaliningrad. The channel had a reputation for objective news reporting, live broadcasts, and studio guests who were sometimes critical of regional leaders. The death was originally considered to be suicide however Solomon Ginzburg a deputy in Kaliningrad’s regional parliament told the Guardian: “I have no doubt at all that this was a political killing.” Read more here

Ingushetia: Murder of opposition activist

Influential businessman and activist Maksharip Aushev was shot dead in Kabardino-Balkaria on 25 October. Aushev had become a vocal critic of the Ingushetia administration, especially its ex-president Murat Zyazikov, after the kidnapping of his son and nephew in 2007. Aushev also ran the website Ingushetia.org, having offered to take on responsibility for it in 2008 following the murder of Magomed Yevloyev, who was killed in police custody.

Russia’s prosecutor general Yuri Chaika promised to personally oversee the murder investigation. This is the latest in a series of attacks on human rights workers and journalists in the North Caucusus region. In Chechnya, prominent human rights activist and journalist Natalya Estemirova was kidnapped and murdered in July, followed by the murder of aid worker Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband in August.

The Russian government announced the end of its military campaign in Chechnya in April, but the culture of violence in the region continues.

Russia: last private TV channels to fall under state control

REN TV and St Petersburg’s Fifth Channel, the last semi-independent private TV stations, will come under state control next year. According Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, news bulletins on both channels’ news bulletins will be restructured next year. The state-owned, pro-Kremlin English language television station “Russia Today” will take over responsibility for their news broadcasts from 2010.

Campaigners accused the Kremlin of killing off the last vestiges of independent television in Russia.

“This means independent TV will be destroyed. It will disappear,” said Oleg Ptashkin, a former correspondent with Russia’s state-run Channel One TV who now runs an independent journalists’ union. (Guardian)