Rallies in Moscow on anniversary of journalist Politkovskaya murder

Oct 7, 2007, 8:33 GMT

Moscow - Opposition activists and human rights defenders plan to rally in Moscow in memory of the murder of investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya - gunned down in front of her home one year ago on Sunday.

A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, Politkovskaya had won international acclaim for her reporting of human rights abuses against civilians in war-torn Chechnya.

For Russia's beleaguered opposition groups, her death in a contract-style killing has come to symbolize the lack of civil liberties and safety of government critics under Putin's rule.

Former Prime Minister and opposition activist Mikhail Kasyanov has called for supporters of his party to gather at mid-day for a Dissenters' March from Pushkin square.

Using what rights groups have described as bullying tactics, authorities have increasingly cracked down on the wave of Dissenters' Marches held across Russia to call for a fair vote leading into the December parliamentary and March presidential elections.

Moscow city hall has granted permission for the march, but only for 500 of the 2,000 expected participants, said Kasyanov's spokeswoman Tatyana Razbash. She said she did not anticipate authorities allowing a march away from the square.

Meanwhile, The Other Russia, a coalition of opposition groups that Kasyanov left earlier this year, planned to meet at a different Moscow location two hours later.

Former chess champion and Putin critic Garry Kasparov is scheduled to lay flowers in front of Politkovskaya's house later in the day, his spokeswoman Lyudimila Mamina said.

On Saturday, police detained five Western rights activists and interrogated organizers of a memorial conference for Politkovskaya in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles east of Moscow. The conference was cancelled after organizer's funds were frozen by authorities.

The five activists including three Spaniards, a Briton and a German employee of Amnesty International were released later in the day.

Police had suspected the foreigners of a routine violation of registration regulations, a regional police spokesman was quoted by Interfax as saying.

But the conference organizer complained that the detention was part an official intimidation campaign to stop the meeting, where participants planned to discuss the investigation of Politkovskaya's murder and the state of journalism in Russia today.

The state-run newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta also on Saturday reported that a Ukrainian mafia boss had been detained in connection with Politkovskaya's murder.

Ten alleged members of a Chechen criminal group, including four law-enforcement officers and a member of the state security service, were arrested in connection with Politkovskaya's death in late August.

On September 24, the former head of a district in Chechnya was also detained as an accomplice in organizing the murder.

Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika had hailed the arrests as major breakthroughs in the investigation to charge Politkovskaya's murderers.

But suspicion that the Kremlin could be linked with her death have only grown deeper as several suspects have had alibis and have been freed.

Politkovskaya was one of 13 journalists slain in contract-style killings in Russia since Putin came to office in 2000, according to the non-governmental Committee to Protect Journalists based in New York.

No suspects have yet been charged in Politkovskaya's murder.