MOSCOW: Three years after the American journalist Paul Klebnikov was shot in a contract murder in Moscow, his family and the American ambassador to Russia gathered at an Orthodox church Monday to mark the anniversary, in a ceremony that also drew attention to the fact that the murder is still unsolved.
At the afternoon service at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the same church where Klebnikov's memorial service was held three years ago, William Burns, the American ambassador, called on the Russian judicial system to "redouble its efforts" to close the case.
Klebnikov, an American of Russian descent who was the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was shot and mortally wounded on a street in front of his office on July 9, 2004, in one of a series of unsolved murders of journalists in Russia during President Vladimir Putin's presidency.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, also issued a statement marking the anniversary, saying that "the intimidation and murder of journalists is an affront to free and independent media and all who respect democratic values."
"We urge Russia to take steps to protect all journalists," McCormack's statement said.
In Klebnikov's case, a promising early effort by investigators has since unraveled.
Two men accused of being the gunmen were acquitted in a closed jury trial, but then Russia's Supreme Court ordered a retrial. In Russia, there is no prohibition against double jeopardy.
That trial, however, is now stalled indefinitely because one of the suspects, Kazbek Dukuzov, disappeared in February. The Moscow City Court has announced that this trial will not continue until Dukuzov is found.
A lawyer for the Klebnikov family, Larisa Maslennikova, said that the prosecutor general's office was also conducting a separate investigation into who ordered the murder. Prosecutors have so far said they are operating on the theory that the killing was carried out on behalf of a Chechen separatist commander, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, who was the subject of one of Klebnikov's books, "A Conversation with a Barbarian."
The unsolved murders of journalists in Russia was condemned in a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last month that called on Putin to increase efforts to investigate a long list of such deaths.
