Anna Politkovskaya – Three Years Later Russia Looks the Same
Three years now passed since the phone call announcing the death of Anna Politkovskaya appeared on my mobile and changed my way of living journalism.
Not that I ever had the chance to meet her or work with her: she was already too much of an icon when I came to work up here putting my hands on the top of that enormous iceberg Russia is.
But if one day I decided to move to Estonia and travel in Russia and Belarus for shouting what the regimes were doing there, it has been only because of her, an enormously modest woman who thought the world what journalism should be.
In these three years I never expected Russia to find her murders nor the head behind them: as because I do not trust Russian prosecutors more than how I trust a man with a gun on his head, as because I am sure that Mr. Vladimir Putin will never be able to point his finger against himself.
Some articles I red today, coming from those people who suffered discovering what happened to Anna Polikosvkaya, states that Russia is more dangerous now than how it was during the cold war. And having had the chance to experience Russian police politeness toward journalists, I support this very “Western” view.
“Any state that turns a blind eye—or worse—toward the assassination of reporters cannot call itself a democracy” wrote Katy Marton today, a concept I agree with and I wanted to bring to the attention of Estonian Free Press readers.
Three years ago Anna Polikovskaya was shot dead because of her brilliant way of interpreting journalism and her enquiries on the disaster – to use a polite word – Russia made in Tchetchenia.
Today the world is once again trying to remember what happened the day a killer used a gun to fight freedom of press.
While today Russia is busy with the celebrations of its Prime Minister birthday. Tsar Vladimir Putin.
Homage to Anna Politkovskaïa:
Dove
In a miserly desert
Of humanity
The glance of a dove
Settled where the wolves,
Low heads,
Are not wearied to howl,
In a poisoned desert,
Miserly of truth,
A dove, this evening, fell.
Anick Roschi october 7th,09
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Freedom for Press :
http://video.moncinema.ch/video/iLyROoafM5Tx.html
An icon, really? She’s been marginal all the time. Pointing at Vladimir Putin is unfounded, she was not a threat to him.
I guess we have two different views on her work. Showing the misery of soldiers, loyal to the power even when they got only a bunch of potatoes back for their commitment was a strong way to denounce the power of Russian ideology nowadays.
And also the way she made Western European discover the Tchetchen situation was something I am still thankful for.
The “icon” role is something obviously subjective, but I guess I would have never taken some decision without reading her, especially some about journalism – that have clearly little to do with Estonian Free Press.
Consider also the country where I am from: many journalists are not a direct threat to my PM and never will be. Nevertheless I am full of admiration for those ones who are not afraid of saying what they document.
Whatever it could be.
I just finished reading Putin's Russia and my gut feeling about Putin the very first time I saw him has been confirmed. Russia's a mess and Putin's a thug of the worst kind. Anna Politkovskaya, I'm sure, knew what fate awaited her and still she continued. In Putin's Russia she named names and called a spade a spade. Why is it the truth is always so powerful and as such, when it is indeed the truth, really intimidates bad people to commit bad acts. What is sowed shall be reaped, murder begets murder and thuggery always comes full circle to the thugs who perpetuate it. Shame on you KGB agent Putin. A leopard never changes its spots–and especially not a corrupt one.
Dear Sandra,
When I turned the last page of that book I had the same feeling you had. And, trust me, it did not change when I happened to get stuck in Russia with policemen loading their guns on my face and fingerprints recorded for quite arguable reasons.
The only advice I can give you is… keep reading and pass that book to whom you think is worth.