Russia: Lawyer Markelov and Journalist Baburova Shot Dead in Moscow

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, 34, was shot to death Jan. 19 as he walked from a news conference along Prechistenka Street in central Moscow. Journalist Anastasia Baburova, 25, who accompanied Markelov, was also shot as she tried to intervene; she died in hospital a few hours later.

Baburova was a freelance journalist for Novaya Gazeta.

Markelov was the attorney for the family of Elza (Kheda) Kungaeva, an 18-year-old Chechen woman killed by Russian colonel Yuri Budanov in March 2000. Budanov was granted early parole and released from prison on Jan. 15, 2009. At the Jan. 19 news conference, Markelov said he planned to file an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against Budanov's early release.

Markelov's other high-profile client was journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was attacked and severely beaten in Nov. 2008 (see this Chicago Tribune story for more info).

The New York Times quoted a spokeswoman for Novaya Gazeta, who said that Markelov had also worked on "almost every case opened as a result of the work of Anna Politkovskaya," a prominent Russian journalist who was shot dead in Oct. 2006.

Many Russian bloggers reacted with shock and outrage to the broad-daylight shootings of Markelov and Baburova. Below are some of the initial responses, translated from Russian.

LJ user tupikin:

[...] I've known Stas [Stanislav] for God knows how many years, from the early 1990s perhaps, from the time he was a law student. Then he finished his studies, cut his long hair short and became a lawyers who was defending the truth, defending human rights even when it seemed that it was impossible to defend them.

He worked in Chechnya against the federals, he worked against the police, he worked against the Nazis.

And he, damn it, was an incredibly cheerful and optimistic person, despite all these nightmares that accompanied him in life. [...]

LJ user alisezus:

I've no idea who killed Stas and Anastasia Baburova. Whoever it was - may he be damned.

Stas used to offer a helping hand to the most humiliated, the most insignificant and, often, the most despised people - those who could no longer hope to get any qualified legal assistance.

A few times I gave Stas' number to my own friends. He never refused to help. Haven't lost a single case.

Eternal memory to you.

LJ user oleg-shein:

[...] Markelov worked on a huge number of cases, which, as a rule, had something to do with illegal activities of the officials. We met when protesters were beaten up in [Elista] five years ago and one person died. We succeeded in replacing the prosecutor then and halting prosecution against those who participated in the protest. There there many other episodes. [...]

He was a sincere, brave and very compassionate person, who had a good sense of irony and sarcasm, a true menace to those who were used to humiliating ordinary people with impunity.

LJ user xanzhar:

[Lawyer Yuri Shmidt] writes that [Markelov] was too brave. Careless. Maybe he did not completely understand what country he lived in. And we, too, did not understand it completely. How disgusting...

One of the comments to this post, from LJ user aquim:

He understood everything. Namely, that a real war is taking place in the country. He knew that he was taking risks all the time.

LJ user marchenk:

[...] Stas was known and respected by everyone who was involved in some kind of social activism. Not just in Moscow. Hard to believe.

He is survived by wife and two children. [...]

A couple comments to this post:

andrei_naliotov:

I talked to him on Thursday. He was convinced that Budanov did not deserve [early conditional release]. To the question on what's to be done now he replied: "We'll fight." An anti-fascist. Beketov's lawyer. [...]

marchenk:

[...] Stas belonged with human rights activists, trade unionists, anarchists, anti-fascists, those who advocated the rights of migrants and refugees. He was perceived not just as a lawyer [...] but as an activist as well. [...]

[...] Throughout his involvement in law and activism, he had been getting many different threats. Budanov's case, Beketov's case, the European Court of Human Rights cases, support for anti-fascists...

LJ user smitrich:

[...] It resembles the murder of Politkovskaya too much.

LJ user voinodel, in a comment to this post:

No, Dima, this murder is much worse.

LJ user voinodel - and his readers - in the comment section to a post on his own blog:

ogneva007:

I think this is part of a script, and the early conditional release of the defendant is, too. The goal is to provoke a social collapse.

voinodel:

Would be okay if it was so. But this seems to be no longer a professional theater, but an amateur performance.

ogneva007:

Amateur performance is predictable and provokable, too.

voinodel:

Yes, you've understood me correctly. But [amateur performance] is scarier because it is taking place on a larger scale.

ogneva007:

And the scale is frightening - I read LJ a lot. And I'm shocked that it is possible to screw (pardon) normal people's brains so much that they begin to write really delirious things with foam at their mouths.

[...]

maramaram:

Markelov, as we know, was Mikhail Beketov's lawyer, but nothing but Budanov is being discussed. I think that those who Beketov was [fighting against] could have predicted such a "course of public thought."

voinodel:

[...] As for Beketov, I absolutely agree with you. But this has to do with us journalists. People will read more eagerly about the murder of the lawyer of the Kungaevs than about the murder of the lawyer of "some" Beketov.

***

A few links to English-language posts on the double murder:

- Keith Gessen Blog:

[...] I’ve been watching TV since I got home… and it’s amazing. It’s amazing. The most offensive, most propagandistic of the evening news shows is on Channel 3, TV-Center, it’s not a major channel so they try harder—the woman broadcaster acted like it was Markelov’s fault that he got shot on the night she was hosting the news. “Another of those killings that are said to ‘resonate,’” she began contemptuously before reading the details as quickly as possible—as though, ok, she understood it was “news,” but also she knew this was all part of Markelov’s brilliant marketing strategy, his media campaign, and, frankly, she found it in poor taste.

There was no hint of an idea that Putin or Medvedev would respond, or that people would grieve, or that something really really horrible had just happened, that they were killing all the best people in Russia and no one was going to do anything about it. [...]

- Ongoing coverage at Robert Amsterdam's Blog, which includes Grigory Pasko's report; a post on the earlier threats that Markelov received; updates on the media and advocacy groups' reactions; and a post on Budanov's early release, drafted when Markelov was still alive.

Russia, Georgia: Crisis Continues

Global Voices Online
Friday, October 6, 2006

As the confrontation between Georgia and Russia continues, so does the discussion of it in the Russian blogosphere. Below are some of the exchanges, translated from Russian.

LJ user plushev writes:

I don't even remember when nearly everyone was writing on one subject. Beslan, perhaps. Was there anything like this after Beslan? [...]

What follows is a selection of Georgia-related quotes from plushev's LJ friends' journals: one blogger worries about president Putin's mental health, a few others crave Georgian food (Moscow authorities have shut down several Georgian restaurants), there are mentions of sculptor Zurab Tsereteli and writer Boris Akunin (Grigoriy Chkhartishvili), both of whom are Georgia-born, and both, as of today, are reportedly under investigation for tax evasion and fraud. LJ user cook (Sergei Parkhomenko) shares this "I'm Georgian" ("Ya gruzin") solidarity badge:



LJ user individuumus adopts the image for his userpic:



LJ user alisezus gets someone to add a Georgian flag to hers:



She writes:

You see, I don't care about Saakashvili's regime at all, but I do care about the fact that ethnic cleansing is taking place in Moscow and its excuse is the fight against Saakashvili's regime. [...] Yes, I am for the Georgians who are being abused in Russia.

In the comments to plushev's LJ roundup, bloggers discuss the seeming hopelessness of the situation - and wonder if they as bloggers can change anything:

_ko_alla: Do you think this can stop the shame that's taking place now? Our officials will read it - and it'll move them and they'll change their minds?

We write about it, discuss it among each other, but what's the use...

plushev: Do you mean you'd like the LJ to have a direct impact?

_ko_alla: Wouldn't you like it? :-))

Seriously, though, the only result of all these discussions is the possibility to find people who share your beliefs. To see that the nonsense of the authorities isn't absolute and that normal people still exist...

thespinningone: Right.. =\ Intelligentsia will, of course, sympathize and voice discontent, but the masses are either indifferent to this anti-Georgian state policy, or they [approve of it], imho...

_ko_alla: Exactly: it's not just the official position that's frightening, but the opinion of the majority as well [...].

Those labelled "the minority" seem pretty vocal, however, and pretty inventive in their dissent. LJ user o-b-vinitel writes:

If there's a need to hide a Georgian family from the [Federal Security Service], I can help.

Georgian cuisine, again, seems like a good weapon in the current situation. LJ user kmaka writes:

[The only way I can help]

I'm on my way to buy ingredients for khachapuri. Kharcho, lobio and chakhokhbili are in my plans, too.

Very ashamed [because of the situation]. Disgusting jackals.

If someone needs it - there's a Georgian cuisine chapter here [in Russian].

LJ user mash-ka has similar intentions:

my personal
protest.
tonight
i won't be lazy and will cook
khachapurrrrrrrrrri and satsivi.
my personal protest action, damn it.

***

In an earlier post, LJ user plushev points out the sad irony present in the ways the Russian authorities are dealing with the crisis - and the ways in which they are fighting organized crime:

A political component in crime prevention

The latest events demonstrate vividly that it's very easy to overcome ethnic criminal groups: all it takes is to [have a fight] at the highest level with the countries from which members [of these groups] originate. But according to this logic, Russian criminals are absolutely safe - to [break up] with oneself isn't a trivial task. But on the other hand, our own bandits are quite bearable, because they are a lot more pleasant and are easier to understand. And above all, they are a lot more spiritual.

Comments reveal that while for some criminal situation in Russia is an abstract topic, for others it's personal - and very painful:

hetribadi: Russian criminals will be overcome when Muslims become the majority in Russia. Then it'll be possible to say that all the trouble is caused by Russians.

frolin: I think that it's all very well. If you get a new playground for kids in your backyard because of the geopolitical confrontations - will you be upset?

plushev: Of course, I will. I've always assumed that children's playgrounds are to be built on my taxes, that are being ripped off me regularly once a month, and now it turns out that in addition to this, there should also be a geopolitical confrontation. I'm all for being happy about it, but only if they eliminate the income tax.

[...]

plushev: [Nature abhors a vacuum], as we know. One criminal entity will undoubtedly be replaced by another, mono- or multiethnic. So quantitatively nothing whatsoever is going to change, no matter how many [punitive] actions they stage to show off. Until the system that protects these criminal entities is destroyed. [This very system] is now chasing the Georgian bandits around - who but not [this system] knows better where to look for them. They are just unlucky, that's it.

[...]

timoha67: No matter what, it's easier to live next to our own bandits... They are, in one way or another, "the guys from the [same neighborhood]" who went to the same school with you, who grew up in the same culture with you... And it's possible to come to an agreement with them...

plushev: Aha, tell it to my papa, who was killed at the request of one Russian bastard by the twenty other Russian bastards.

sluza: You serious?

plushev: [Yes.]

timoha67: There are enough bastards everywhere...

plushev: But you promised it'd be easier to come to an agreement with them. So I decided to find out where they do come to agreements, thought you'd know.