The setup: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. Two lines of eager yet tired people hoping for stamps in their international passports. I have finally reached the window, a few minutes away from receiving my third student visa (U.S. student visas require annual renewal).
The embassy official: “Where are you going?”
as: “Lincoln, Nebraska”
eo: “Do you plan to return?”
as: “Most definitely” (a standard answer)
eo “What is the purpose of you trip?”
as: “I go to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln”
eo: “What do you study?”
as: “Journalism and political science”
eo (looking up from his paperwork): “You want to be a journalist?”
as: “Yes”
eo: “Quite a dangerous profession in Russia. Are you not afraid to get killed?”
***
Another Russian journalist died a violent death Sunday. Magomed Yevloyev (mah-gah-MED Yev-LO-yev) is the third killed this year, according to the Glastnost Defence Foundation. Yevloyev owned an opposition Web site, Ingushetiya.Ru, in the republic (province) of Ingushetia, one surrounded by republics (provinces) of Chechnya, North Ossetia and the country of Georgia. The New York Times gives a brief outline of what happened, but failed to explain why the journalist even contacted the police: Yevloyev was picked up from the airport to serve as a witness in a criminal court case.
A google search on “Russia Journalist Killed” obviously offered me several articles on now well-known Anna Politkovskaya (AH-nah Pah-lit-KOV-sky-ah) before listing something on Yevloyev’s death. For some reason, it was an article in Arutz Sheva, the IsraelNationalNews.com. The article also talks about the shot in the head, the official “killing by accident” version and the local government’s ties to the federal government. The reporter’s being a witness in some sort of a criminal investigation is not there either. But then they also report Politkovskaya as having been poisoned in 2004, when she really was shot – twice, in fact – in 2006.
Yevloyev’s Ingushetiya.Ru included the criminal case investigation involving Yevlayev in their report, also quoting a press-release of Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media, who compares this killing to that of Politkovskaya. An interesting fact: a former editor-in-chief had fled the company in August and found refuge in France.
Speaking of refuge, the Web site also has an interesting document: The Resolution Of The All-National Mourning Protest, Connected With The Killing Of Magomed Yevloyev.
to the Councilor of the Federal Republic of Germany
to the President of France
to the Prime Minister of Italy
to the Prime Minister of Great Britain
to the President of the USA
to the Prime Minister of Japan
to the Prime Minister of Canada
for information
to the President of Russia
The resolution calls Yevloyev’s death “another political killing,” mentions Putin’s KGB past and, basically, asks for refuge for all present at the mourning protest in the countries listed above.
Other this year’s reporters’ deaths, often mentioned as political, were those of Ilyas Shurpayev (Ill-YAS Shoor-PA-yev) and Gadzhi Abashilov (God-ZHEE Ah-bah-SHE-love), both on March 21. The police found Shurpayev with signs of violence in his burning apartment in Moscow. Three suspects are under arrest. Abashilov died in Dagestan, a republic (province) on the Caspian sea, bordering Georgia, Azerbajdzhan and the Chechen Republic. His car received multiple shots. The investigation continues. All of this is according to the Glastnost Defence Foundation. Shurpayev reported for the First (governmental channel), after spending some time covering the Northern Caucasus region for NTV, a formerly edgy, controversial television station. Abashilov was a chairman of the Governmental Television and Radio Company “Dagestan.”
