Demanding Justice for Markelov

Several hundred Muscovites, a rather small number considering the gravity of the event, have come out today to lay roses, mourn, and demand justice for the brutal murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova. It seems that amidst all the outrage and sadness, we are seeing many express a sense of disgust. From Reuters:

“Mourners left a mound of red roses and yellow carnations in the snow at the spot where Markelov was shot. Candles burnt below pictures of the two and a small Russian flag with the words”They died for Russia’s freedom“hung above the flowers.”I came today as I am deeply sorry and disgusted for Russia: how can you just shoot people down in broad daylight in the centre of Moscow,“said Alexandra Fomina, a prominent artist.”Can we tolerate this much longer? And will they catch anyone for this murder - or will it be business as usual?“(...)”Markelov was a lawyer foremost but in his heart he was also a human rights activist - he fought for the underdog against some powerful people,“said Lyudmilla Alexeyeva, one of Russia’s most famous human rights activists.”

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Photo [not reproduced here]: A woman lays a flower at the site where human-rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, seen in photo at right, and journalist Anastasia Baburova, in photos at left and center, were gunned down on Monday, in Moscow, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. Markelov, renowned for his work on abuses in Chechnya was shot to death Monday by a masked gunman who followed him from a news conference, officials said. A young journalist who tried to intervene also was gunned down. (AP Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko)

 Grigory Pasko: R.I.P., Stanislav Markelov (1974-2009)

Yet another human rights advocate killed in the capital of Russia. Lawyer Stanislav Markelov was shot on Prechistenka street in the center of Moscow. Stanislav was only 34 years old, but he was well known not only in the milieu of human rights advocates, but in wider circles as well. First and foremost, he was known as the Moscow lawyer who was not afraid to conduct cases in Chechnya, defending Chechen citizens. In recent days, his name was never off the pages of the mass information media, because he was striving to get the conditional early release of Yuri Budanov, a former colonel who killed the young Chechen woman Elza Kungayeva, declared unlawful.

And it was right after a press conference dedicated to this unlawful release that Stanislav was killed.

The head of the investigative administration for Moscow, Anatoly Bagmet, has already declared that the murder of the lawyer may be “associated with his professional activity.”

This phrase in Russia has already become so typical that personally, it irritates me with its stupidness and routineness. If they kill a journalist or a lawyer, then what other reason can there possibly be in Putin’s Russia besides the profession of these people!

It was not by chance that I have recalled the profession of journalist: many consider that the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Stanislav Markelov are very similar. First of all, because they were killed for the honest fulfillment of their professional duty and because the state organs did nothing for the protection of such professionals.

Furthermore, the state had knowledge of facts of threats both to the address of Politkovskaya, and to the address of Markelov. Why did the law-enforcement organs not do a single damn thing to protect the journalist and the lawyer? Could it be because the state organs themselves weren’t very interested in preserving the lives of these people?

Markelov is also known for the fact that he worked on cases against Russian Nazis. With Markelov was «Novaya gazeta» journalist Anastasia Baburova, who happened to be writing specifically about cases connected with the activity of Russian nazis. The killers gravely wounded her in the head.

Stanislav Markelov likewise represented the interests of the journalist Mikhail Beketov, savagely beaten in November of the year 2008. Beketov is known as the opposition journalist who had published unmasking articles about the officials of the administration of [Moscow suburb] Khimki in the newspaper “Khimkinskaya pravda” and was actively fighting to save the Khimki forest, which until recent times had been threatened with clearance in connection with the construction of the Moscow-Petersburg expressway.

Here is the opinion of human rights leader Lev Ponomarev, whom I telephoned immediately after the murder of Stanislav Markelov:

“This was a person close to me. What is especially tragic is that this was a young person. Tomorrow we in conjunction with «Memorial» are conducting an action of memory for the slain lawyer. Stanislav literally dodged bullets in our country: he led cases in Chechnya, cases against nazis, was the lawyer for the family of the young Chechen woman killed by Budanov... The nazis threatened him openly, on their websites were hanging threats to his address. I reminded him about precautionary measures, but what could he do?.. They killed the person, as is said, at the battle station.”

And here is the opinion of Stanislav’s colleague, the lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin:

“This murder proves yet again that in our country it is dangerous to be a defender of the rights of people, if the opposite side is - the state or people near to it. The state clearly sympathized with both the Nazis and Budanov. And against lawyers who defend the rights of people, especially if these rights are violated by state organs or law-enforcement organs, at times are applied even such measures as arrest, the initiation of fabricated cases. For a long time already, there is talk about the creation in Russia of a special structure for the protection of lawyers. We see that certain lawyers are already afraid to take part in the defense of politically motivated criminal cases.”

To this I add that Trepashkin himself conducts such cases as the persecution of the organization «Portos»; defends the rights of the journalist Boris Stomakhin who is sitting in a colony.

And so, yet another high-profile and audacious murder has been committed in the Russia of the times of Putin. I doubt that it will ever be fully solved. At best, as with the case of Anna Politkovskaya, they’ll take the triggerman into custody.

 A Contract Hit on Markelov?

It would seem odd that your average extremist ultra-nationalist would use a professional silencer. This comes from RFE/RL:

Svetlana Gannushkina of Russia’s Memorial human rights center told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that Markelov’s murder bore the signs of a hired killing.

“This could not have been accidental, and there was certainly no criminal motive behind it,” Gannushkina said. “Unfortunately, we cannot conduct our own investigation. We can only demand that the law enforcement bodies do it. But our capabilities, our mechanisms, so to speak, of making such demands are unfortunately very, very weak. All we can do is express our indignation and try to find out who threatened Stanislav, when, why, and how.” (...)

In an interview with RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, Kungayev — who now lives in Norway with this four remaining children — said he believed Budanov was behind the slaying.

“We, the whole family, are shocked and speechless. There is no doubt that my lawyer was killed by Budanov and his gang. I feel sorry for this professional [lawyer]. A person is killed in broad daylight in Moscow and the criminal escapes,” Kungayev said.

“Budanov and his gang are behind it. [Markelov] told me last Thursday he was being threatened with death if he didn’t drop Budanov’s case,” he adds. “As soon as the murderer [Budanov] got out of prison, they killed this man, this professional [Markelov].”