Details are beginning to emerge about the the two suspects held on suspicion of gunning down fearless human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta intern Anastasia Baburova on January 19th this year.  It appears that one of the pair, both of whom are suspected of being members of an untranationalist organization, has confessed to the crime.  Whilst we are often lamenting the lack of justice in relation to the astounding number of slayings of journalists and activists which remain unsolved (indeed in some cases, unremarked upon by the Kremlin), many rights advocates are wary of jumping to the conclusion that what we are seeing today represents a breakthrough in transparency and justice-seeking. ...

Reporters without Borders, an international press freedom watchdog group, has been suddenly and unexpectedly stripped of their travel visas to attend an event to honor Anna Politkovskaya and screen a new documentary.  I first caught this news late last night from RFE/RL, who writes that RSF was "shocked" by the government's decision to not allow them into the country.This comment struck me as somewhat amusing and interesting.  We all remember that the very same thing was done to Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch, right after the organization had published a critical (and very well done) report on the rights situation in Russia.  Hugo Chavez is fond of doing pulling the same moves on HRW, and likely RSF in the future.  When we pretend to be shocked and surprised that the Kremlin acts like an ...

Memorial, fresh on the heels of an insulting lawsuit from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadryrov, holds a rally to commemorate slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya today:Hundreds of people are rallying in Moscow on the third anniversary of the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.They are calling for authorities to find and punish the killers of journalists and human rights activists in Russia.Politkovskaya was a harsh critic of the Kremlin and exposed widespread human-rights abuses and corruption in Chechnya. The person who ordered her contract-style killing has not been found.Her editor Dmitry Muratov told the crowd that "there is a political will in not solving the murders" of Politkovskaya and others.UPDATE:  If you Twitter, you may want to consider putting ...

TODAY: Third anniversary of the killing of Anna Politkovskaya; Kadyrov wins his lawsuit against Memorial, launches another.  Gay marriage bid rejected; critical posters displayed around Moscow.  Medvedev gets his new speech writer; no independence recognition trade-off with Turkey; Russia denies its scientists are helping Iran with bomb.Three years on from the slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov says that new suspects have emerged in the murder case.  Russia has denied visas to two members of Reporters without Borders, who planned a trip to Russia for the anniversary of the journalist's death.  The move has been criticized by her son Ilya Politkovskaya.  K. Anthony Appiah in the Washington Post laments the fact that in Russia ...

This one is fresh off the wire on Angela Merkel's upcoming meeting with Dmitry Medvedev.  Despite strong efforts, Merkel's past comments on human rights have not produced much.  Perhaps this summit, a new approach will be attempted.

From The New York Times:

For all her ability to speak Russian, or draw on her experience of growing up and working in Communist East Germany, Mrs. Merkel also has little to show for speaking out on human rights.That will not stop her from voicing concern about recent killings of activists in Chechnya, said a government spokesman. This week, the bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva, a human rights campaigner, and her husband were found in the trunk of a car in Chechnya. Last month, Natalya Estemirova, a human rights campaigner, was kidnapped and killed; even Mr. Medvedev expressed dismay. ...

TODAY: Medvedev firm on realignment of Caucasus; pledges support for the breakaway territories; details of Cyxymu hacking case emerge.  Justice for Politkovskaya meets obstacles; Kadyrov shows little love for Estemirova; Putin celebrates ten years in power.  Helicopters, cars and cops. 'Last year's events have finally redrawn the political map of the Caucasus' said President Medvedev, awarding medals at a war in Georgia commemoration service.  Medvedev has promised to develop 'full-fledged relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, regardless of whether somebody likes it or not'.  According to the President, Georgia has not stopped threatening to regain its 'territorial integrity' by force.  He has pledged to continue to provide South Ossetia with social, economic and military ...

Writing in the Guardian, Anna Blundy is not all that impressed with the latest contribution to the oligarch literature: Londongrad by Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley

The wives and girlfriends "flock" to Courchevel and "descend on the Côte d'Azur", though it is clear the authors had no access to them either. There is also a strong note of derision directed at the Brits, described as "bag carriers" for the rich Russians, with emphasis on Stephen Curtis, Khodorkovsky's UK lawyer, who died in a suspiciously timed helicopter crash in 2004.

The book does include the classic story of Berezovsky serving Abramovich with a writ in Hermès on London's Sloane Street and accounts of the murders of Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko and Robert Workman, the pensioner shot dead in

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David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker and a frequent journalist and author on Russia, has published a new piece about the murder of journalist Natalia Estemirova.  At the end of the article, Remnick posted an audio recording of his on-stage interview with her at the Politkovskaya memorial service held by PEN.

A couple of years ago, at a memorial service for the great Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya put together by PEN, I had the honor of interviewing onstage one of Politkovskaya's friends, the human-rights activist Natalia Estemirova. Politkovskaya, who was murdered at her home in Moscow in 2006 (as Michael Specter and Keith Gessen have written in The New Yorker), did her best and bravest work in Chechnya for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the few remaining outlets with the audacity to continue publishing the truth about

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The typical reactions have started to roll in from the international community in response to Natalia Estemirova's murder, and it's hard not to sense the thick surreality of these calls for justice, investigations, and expectations that the authorities will take any real law-and-order steps toward holding someone accountable for the slaying.  Apparently, the news of the murder didn't even make the front page of Russia's four largest newspapers, yet we are stubbornly unwilling to recognize how the system claimed another life.Such calls might have made sense way back when Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya first fell victim, but they seem just short of delusional given the legal drift in recent years.  The second show trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is fully underway, Klebnikov's family had to pressure the state to resume the five-year-old investigation, while Anna's trial is kicked back and forth over the ...

TODAY: Rights activist Natalya Estemirova found dead hours after abduction; the US and EU both express regret and urge protection for rights advocates; Putin silent.  Russia's superannuated military struggling to keep up? US soldiers engage in exercises with Georgian in show of solidarity.Human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, Memorial's representative to Chechyna and winner of the first annual Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2007 for her work as a human rights defender, was abducted in Grozny upon leaving her home.  Her body was found some hours later off a highway.  The slain activist was 'a central source of information on abuses in Chechnya', according to the New York Times, and her recent work had focused upon kidnappings that had ...