Russian justice pins Politkovskaya death on Kremlin foes (Roundup)

Aug 27, 2007, 15:03 GMT

Moscow - Russian Justice officials in Moscow claimed that the key figures behind the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya were enemies of the Russian state living abroad including the leader of a Chechen crime gang, the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika as saying.

A case would be launched shortly against the 10 suspects arrested so far, according to Chaika, who said the 'destructive forces' attempted to sow upheaval in Russia with the crime.

Among those arrested were members of the domestic intelligence agency FSB and the Interior Ministry who provided information to the contract killers, he said, adding that those arrested included organizers, supporters as well as the actual killer.

The persons who actually placed the contract on Politkovskaya were outside Russia, he said, with Russian media speculating that the accusations are being directed at the exiled Kremlin critic and billionaire Boris Berezovsky, who currently lives in London.

'Only persons outside Russia had an interest in the removal of Anna Politkovskaya,' with the goal of destabilizing Russia 'to conjure up a crisis and return to an old system under which everything was decided by money and oligarchs,' Chaika said, making reference to the 1990s.

The backers of the plot had hoped to intimidate the Russian leadership, force them to back off their current course.

According to Chaika, Politkovskaya knew and had met her killer.

There was a great deal of work to do in the case, and would not exclude the possibility of Russia requesting extradition of suspects, Chaika added.

The opposition journalist and human rights activist Politkovskaya was shot from behind on October 7, 2006 by an unknown person after returning from shopping to her flat in Moscow.

The murder caused perturbation worldwide.

Politkovskaya mainly reported for the government-critical paper Novaya Gazeta, addressing violations of human rights by Russian and Chechen security forces in the semi-autonomous republic of Chechnya. She was also among the sharpest critics of the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Government critics accused the justice authorities of being half- hearted in their pursuit of the murderers.

However, the editor in chief of the Novaya Gazeta Dmitri Muratov was quoted by news agency as saying 'the results of the investigation were absolutely convincing and professional,' adding that the investigators still have a great deal of work to do.