Polls & Research

Russians Hopeless on Finding Journalist Killers

- Few adults in Russia express confidence in the investigation on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation. Only 16 per cent of respondents think it is likely that the organizers of the murder will be found.

On Oct. 7, Politkovskaya—whose writing was featured in Novaya Gazeta—was assassinated inside her Moscow apartment building. During her career, she reported on human rights abuses and violations committed by the Russian armed forces during the war with rebels in Chechnya.

On Oct. 10, Chechen prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov rejected claims that the assassination is connected to Chechnya, saying, "To speculate on this bloody crime without any reasons and serious proofs means to argue at the level of rumours and gossip; it does not adorn either the press or politicians."

On Oct. 25, Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed the situation, saying, "The obligation of the state is to bring any such investigation to the end—this concerns the killings of mass media representatives and killings in the economic sphere."

On the same day, the European Parliament officially voiced "its deep concern over the increasing intimidation, harassment and murder of independent journalists and of other persons critical of the current government" in Russia, and reminds "that a continuation of this tendency will negatively affect Russia's overall reputation."

Chechen rebels have tried to secede from the Russian Federation since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Several terrorist incidents in Russia have been blamed on the loose group, including two airplane crashes, a suicide bombing in Moscow and the assassination of Chechnya's president Akhmad Kadyrov—Ramzan's father—in May 2004.

Polling Data

Do you believe it is likely or unlikely that the organizers of Anna Politkovskaya's murder will ever be found?