October 7th in Russia is a day when we remember two persons with different personalities, both in spirit as well as lifestyle. Six years ago journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow. Sixty years ago a man was born on the planet Earth, a man who was fortunate to have a turn at the helm and steer the entire state for over ten years. Today the political and business elite of Russia celebrates the 60th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Putin.

In Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday, October 7th, there will be a rally commemorating Anna Politkovskaya. There will also be rallies and parties by pro-Kremlin youths in honor of Putin's anniversary.

From 1982 to 1993 Anna Politkovskaya worked for the newspapers ‘Izvestia’ and ‘Air Transport’, as well as for the magazine of the ‘Escart’ creative association, and the ‘Parity’ publishing house. Before 1994 she was a columnist for the weekly ‘Megapolis Express’ back when the publication was not yet a tabloid. From 1994 to 1999 she was a columnist and emergencies editor for ‘Obshchaya Gazeta’. A book titled ‘The Beatles of Perestroika’ describes how “after publication of certain auctions, Vladimir Gusinsky (whom Anna knew) threatened her with death.”

From 1999 onward Politkovskaya was a columnist at ‘Novaya Gazeta’ and repeatedly traveled to the war zones. In January of 2000, Anna Politkovskaya was awarded the ‘Golden Pen of Russia’ prize for a series of reports from Chechnya.  She was also presented with an award from the Russian Union of Journalists, the ‘Good Deed — Good Heart’ award, for her materials on combating corruption, as well as the ‘Golden Gong 2000’ award, for a series of articles on Chechnya.

Anna Politkovskaya authored the documentary books ‘Journey into Hell — A Chechen Diary’ and ‘The Second Chechen (War)’. She also wrote ‘Putin's Russia’, which was published in the UK. Her latest piece in ‘Novaya Gazeta’ was titled “Punitive Conspiracy” and devoted to the structure and activities of Chechen units fighting for the federals. In September and early October of 2006, Anna Politkovskaya significantly increased her analytical and journalistic activities in the light of the upcoming 2007 parliamentary and 2008 presidential elections.

In addition to journalism, Politkovskaya was engaged in human rights activities. She helped the mothers of dead soldiers defend their rights in court and investigated corruption at the Ministry of Defense and the joint command of the federal forces in Chechnya. She also helped victims from ‘Nord-Ost’.

In real life Politkovskaya, especially in the last years before her murder, was keen and poignant in her criticism of the Russian government: “Why do I dislike Putin? I will say why. For the simplicity, which is worse than theft. For the cynicism. For the racism. For the endless war. For the lying. For the gas at ‘Nord-Ost’. For the corpses of innocent victims that have accompanied him during his entire first term. The corpses, which might not have been.”

On November 27th, 2000, Anna Politkovskaya, was asked by a ‘Novaya Gazeta’ reader why none of her articles mentioned the genocide of Russians in Chechnya, to which she replied: “From 1991–1994 I had no opportunity to explore the issue of the physical genocide of Russians in Chechnya. The current period of Chechen genocide, however, is obvious, and military forces, as well as the Chechens themselves, are carrying it out. Many times I have tried to find out for myself many facts to which I have been a witness, whether these were unfortunate accidents or due to stupidity, but always I have been routed: there is a system of extermination of Chechens in Russia.  Alas, nothing else can explain what is happening…”

In ‘Svobodnaya Volna’
http://mvkursk.ru/topnews/24423.html

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