Russian Lawyer and Russian journalist murdered.

[Shadow]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LJ299961.htm

Russian lawyer's murder shocks rights activists
19 Jan 2009 19:03:29 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds trainee journalist dies, Anmesty Intl, Yabloko quotes)

By Shamil Baigin and Aydar Buribaev

MOSCOW, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A prominent Russian lawyer who had fought against the early release of an army colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen girl was shot dead along with a journalist on a Moscow street on Monday.

Stanislav Markelov acted for the family of 18-year-old Elza Kungayeva, whose murder in 2000 became a symbol of human rights abuses in war-ravaged Chechnya.

Markelov, 34, had led legal attempts to block the early release of Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was convicted of her murder. Mostly Muslim Chechnya was rocked by protests last month when a court ruled Budanov should be released.

Prosecutors said Markelov's body was found with several gunshot wounds on one of Moscow's main streets. He had just given a briefing to reporters. "What happened to Markelov is just outrageous," said Tanya Lokshina, deputy head of Human Rights Watch in Moscow. She called the murder as shocking as the 2006 killing of Anna Politkovskya, a journalist and outspoken Kremlin critic who reported on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

"For those in Chechnya, (Markelov's) name was a symbol of hope that you can find justice and the guilty will be punished," Lokshina said.

"It's terrible that this has become a grim reality of our life," said Karina Moskalenko, a lawyer for Politkovskaya's family. "This is a country in which murders of those defending human rights are now becoming everyday routine."

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International urged the Russian authorities to investigate the murder "promptly, fully and objectively".

"Stanislav Markelov"s murder is a despicable crime," said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia Programme director. "Silencing those who defend human rights and work to uphold the rule of law is absolutely unacceptable."

Anastasia Baburova, a trainee reporter from Politkovskaya's Novaya Gazeta who had been investigating neo-Nazism in Russia, was shot along with Markelov. She died later in hospital.

WAR CRIME

Kungayeva's murder in 2000 provoked a storm of protest in Chechnya. Her family said she had been raped and murdered in a drunken rampage by Russian troops.

Budanov was arrested in 2000, charged with her murder and later jailed for 10 years, the highest-ranking Russian officer to be imprisoned for war crimes in Chechnya.

He was freed early last Thursday, triggering a wave of indignation in Chechnya, where one local official said he should be killed according to the region's tradition of blood feuds.

Kungayeva's father said Markelov had received death threats on his mobile phone over recent days.

"We are shocked," Visa Kungayev told Reuters from Norway where his family lives in exile. "He said last Thursday he was receiving text messages with threats. I told him: 'Well, let's stop it then.' But he said: 'No, Visa, let's push ahead'."

He said Markelov had planned to appeal to the Strasbourg- based European Court of Human Rights if Russia's Supreme Court turned down his new complaint against Budanov's early release.

"This murder shows that political murder becomes the decisive factor in Russia's social life, and the use of force -- the main argument against a personality," Russia's liberal Yabloko party said in a statement.

Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said he had taken Markelov's murder investigation under his personal control. (Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

[Chicagoguy]

Similar things keep happening again and again in Russia. The man who murdered the Russian in London is now a member of the Duma. I can understand why my fiance is willing to leave. Love the people but hate the country. Sort of like some foreign people feel about U.S. ?

[OlgaH]

The man who murdered the Russian in London is now a member of the Duma.

Who?

[Vaughn]

A dated article, 17 Sept 2007, but perhaps the same man?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/17/russia.lukeharding

The former KGB spy accused of murdering the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko said yesterday he intended to embark on a new career as a politician and would stand for parliament in the Russian election in December.

Andrei Lugovoi said he would run as a candidate for the Kremlin-supporting ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic party. The party confirmed it had placed him second on its party list - a move that virtually guarantees him a seat as an MP.

As a member of Russia's Duma (lower house), Mr Lugovoi would automatically enjoy immunity from prosecution. In reality this makes no difference since the Kremlin has categorically refused Britain's request to extradite Mr Lugovoi to the UK.

[OlgaH]

A dated article, 17 Sept 2007, but perhaps the same man?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/17/russia.lukeharding

Andrei Lugovoi, one of the Russian men who met Alexander Litvinenko on the day he fell ill with polonium poisoning, should be charged with his murder, the Crown Prosecution Service recommended today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/may/22/russia.politics

Who is the other Russian men who met Alexander Litvinenko? And what the the evidence?

March 21, 2008
According to an investigation by Edward Epstein, a New York Sun journalist, Aleksandr Litvinenko may have accidentally poisoned himself while trying to smuggle polonium-210. Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former Russian Intelligence officer, died of polonium-210 poisoning in November 2006.

[youtube=425,350]ABZCoZhpJLo[/youtube]

July 29, 2008, 17:44

Litvinenko murder: German documents find no Russian link
Documents submitted by the German police last week do not give grounds to allege a ‘Russian trail’ in the murder of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko. That's according to Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika.

Chaika says Russia's position remains the same as a comprehensive investigation by the Prosecutor General’s Office into the murder found no evidence to link Russia to the case.

German police became involved when Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who lives in Germany, was named as a key witness.

Litvinenko case: interview with Edward Epstein

[youtube=425,350]TaYLMTQ-_w8[/youtube]

Who's Who At The Polonium Party
http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/hypothesis.htm

[OlgaH]

Boris Berezovsky held his 60th black-tie birthday party at Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill's birthplace. In the center of the room was an ice sculpture representing St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, coated with black caviar. At one table was Alexander Litvinenko, Andrei Lugovoi, and Akhmed Zakayev. They all had been born in the former Soviet Union and they had all been in prison. Ten months later, they all had another connection: Polonium-210.

http://edjayepstein.blogspot.com/2007/07/polonium-party.html


Police have now reconstructed practically all of Litvinenko's movements on that day. He went to see Berezovsky; he bought some newspapers in Piccadilly; he met with businessman Andrei Lugovoi at the Millennium Hotel. Then he met with Scaramella at Itsu, a Japanese restaurant. Then he visited a security firm - and that's when he started feeling ill. Traces of polonium-210 have been found at all these locations - but Berezovsky's office was first on the list. Now the oligarch will be questioned again, and this questioning session is unlikely to be an easy one for him.

http://www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=821