Russia

A journalist who broke the story of a Russian cargo ship apparently hijacked by pirates has fled Russia fearing for his life, the Guardian has reported. Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the online maritime bulletin Sovfracht, said he had left the country after receiving a menacing late-night phone call. The newspaper reported: [ Link] Voitenko said an unidentified man called him on the night of...

The interior ministry of the Republic of Khakassia (in southwestern Siberia) has withdrawn the charges of spreading false rumours that were brought against Mikhail Afanasyev, the editor the Novy Focus news website, on August 20 in connection with his coverage of an explosion at a hydro-electric plant. “We welcome this decision but we nonetheless regard this case as indicative of the hostility that...

The Russian supreme court Thursday ordered that the case against three alleged accomplices to journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s murder should be returned to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation, overturning a lower court ruling on August 7 blocking this possibility. A representative of the prosecutor general said the investigation into the accomplices would be combined with the...

Prosecutors in Abakan, the capital of the Republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, have filed defamation charges against online editor Mikhail Afanasyev, over a blog entry about Monday's explosion at Russia's largest hydroelectric plant that killed dozens of workers, according to news reports. Prosecutors opened a criminal probe against Afanasyev on Wednesday, after he and his two colleagues at...

Russia's Orthodox Church has cursed and excommunicated a journalist for "satanic lies" in accusing the abbess of a monastery of intimidating locals into selling their homes for "peanuts." Says a Reuters report: [ Link] The Russian Orthodox Church used excommunication and the anathema ecclesiastical curse as powerful weapons against its enemies under the tsars, but rarely imposes the sanctions...

A journalist known for his critical commentary has been killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, 32, was shot in his car at around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday on the outskirts of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the independent Caucasus news website Kavkazsky Uzel reported. The Dagestan Investigative Committee, the region's investigative office, has opened a...

A Moscow military court has decided to press on with the retrial of three alleged accomplices in Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, rejecting a petition by the Politkovskaya family for it to be postponed while further investigations were carried out. Presiding judge Nikolai Tkachuk on Friday denied the request although it was supported both defence lawyers and prosecutors. “We are...

Three suspects in the murder of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya went on trial for a second time in Moscow Wednesday, according to news reports. No one has been sentenced for the October 2006 killing of Politkovskaya, who published scathing exposes of official corruption and rights abuses. The three alleged accomplices, the only people so far charged in connection with the murder...

Prominent journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova has been murdered in Chechnya. Estemirova, 50, was abducted Wednesday morning in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as she was leaving her apartment for work, Reuters reported. She was found shot in the head and the chest in the neighbouring region of Ingushetia at around 5 p.m.. Estemirova was an activist with the Moscow-based human...

Russian newspaper editor Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, who spent weeks in a coma after being attacked and beaten outside his home on April 29, succumbed to his injuries Monday in the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don. He was 63. Yaroshenko, editor-in-chief of the Rostov-on-Don newspaper Korruptsiya i Prestupnost, was found unconscious with a head wound in the entrance of his apartment building early on...