Anna Politskovskaya (1958-2006)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pretty much choked the life out of the democracy movement that rose from the ashes of the Soviet Union, but the murder of one of his most outspoken critics, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, is still shocking.

A gunman shot Politkovskayafour times as she returned to her Moscow apartment on Saturday night after shopping. The 48-year-old mother-of-two died on the spot. She had lived alone because of concern that others would be hurt if she became a target.

Politkovskaya worked for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Its publishers, who include former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, have offered a reward of 25 million rubles ($933,500) to find the gunman and the people behind the murder.

Lotsa luck.

No one has been convicted for the last high-profile killing of a journalist in Russia, U.S. reporter Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, who was shot dead in 2004.

Forty three Russian journalists have been murdered since 1993, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which it says makes Russia the third most dangerous country for reporters.

Let's call a spade a spade: These killings were political assassinations.

Politkovskaya was working on a story about human rights abuses by government forces fighting separatist rebels in the violent southern province of Chechnya.

Although Politkovskaya's aggressive reporting of atrocities in Chechnya brought her international fame, the mainstream Russian media rarely gave her airtime as most Russians get their news from television, where all the main channels toe a pro-Kremlin line.

Russian television has reported Politkovskaya's death prominently, noting that she had won international recognition for criticizing government policies in Chechnya, but did mention her highly personal criticism of Putin.

Wrote Politkovskaya in her book "Putin's Russia":

"Putin has by chance got his hands on enormous power and has used it to catastrophic effect. "I dislike him because he does not like people. He despises us ... he believes he can do anything he likes with us, play with us as he sees fit, destroy us as he sees fit.''

More here and here on this latest act of state-sanctioned thuggery, as well as an editorial.

THE OLD MEDIA IS STILL THE MESSAGE

"Tell us how many journalists were assassinated in your country last year, and we will tell you what kind of society you have."

So write Susan Moeller andMoisés Naím in a penetrating Los Angeles Times piece.

More here.