Russia: The Fourth Son

Global Voices Online
Sunday, June 7, 2009

A month or so ago, LJ user voinodel (Russian journalist Vadim Rechkalov) started a second LJ blog (voynodel) and announced (RUS) that he would use it for writing "unhurried posts" there. So far, Rechkalov has posted twice on this new blog. The first text is about the funeral of one of the victims of a Moscow police officer who shot at least three people to death at a Moscow supermarket in April; the second one (RUS) is a sketch about a Chechen family - and here is a translation:

Alaudin and Fatima were only having boys born to them. But they were dreaming of a girl, especially Alaudin. Relatives did not understand Alaudin. He's got three men growing in his house, the relatives would say, and he's dreaming of a girl.

Alaudin and Fatima lived in [Grozny], in Tashkal [area]. In a 5-story building on Zavety Ilyicha Street. When the war began, Alaudin took the family out to [Nazran], then came back to Grozny to watch after the apartment.

At night, Alaudin used to come out on the balcony. He smoked and watched [tracer bullets] fly by. During mortar attacks Alaudin used to lock the apartment and go down to the basement. Once, when he walked outside after the bombing, he saw a woman he didn't know and a baby lying on the ground - she hadn't made it to the basement in time. The baby was alive. Alaudin took the baby home, [and unwrapped the bundle on the kitchen table].

"A boy, again," Alaudin said and started laughing.

This is how Alaudin and Fatima got their fourth son. Alaudin called him Moris, in honor of the horse catcher from his favorite book [Morris Jerald, from The Headless Horseman by Mayne Reid].

Alaudin's relatives don't get it. What kind of name is that - Moris? Should've called him Maerbek instead...

Russia, UAE: Sulim Yamadayev - Dead or Alive?

Global Voices Online
Sunday, April 5, 2009

According to some sources, Sulim Yamadayev, former Chechen rebel commander and former commander of the Russian Vostok ("East") Battalion, was assassinated in Dubai on March 28. According to other sources, he survived the shooting. (More background info - here, at RFE/RL's Caucasus Report.)

Below is a selection of Russophone bloggers' reactions to the conflicting reports about the attack on Yamadayev.

LJ user voinodel - March 29:

All kinds of unofficial rumors here. That one - or not? Killed him - or wounded him?
According to our own very reliable information, Sulim Yamadaeyv is in coma now.

Update: Life.ru writes that he'll survive. So perhaps it's not all that bad. [...]

LJ user voinodel - March 30:

Freedom to choose

Killed.
Alive.

Both have [Yamadayev's brother Isa] as a source. The reports are half an hour apart.

[...]

P.S. Searched the web. Entered "Yamadayev alive" on Yandex [search]. [Nothing.] Not a single item. If Life.ru turns out to be right and Yamadayev is indeed alive, it is unlikely to change the situation in any way. No one will believe Yamadayev now. Interfax reported, RIA Novosti reported, Channel One reported. Go and die, Suleiman Bekmirzayevich [Sulim Yamadayev], don't interfere with our work.

- But what about Life.ru? - Suleiman Bekmirzayevich would ask.
- Life.ru is yellow press, - they'll respond to him. [Not trustworthy.] Read RIA Novosti instead. You've died. On Monday. You'll be buried in the Emirates. So be ready in the morning.

LJ user savsane - March 30:

Once upon a time, there lived three brothers. Three Heroes of Russia. They were all killed. First, the eldest one. Then... et cetera. Recalled recently that Yamadayev had build a chapel in Moscow region. On the territory of the Military Academy. None of the graduates of this institution had it in him to do it, except Yamadayev.

***

agitator_mass:

At the Dubai hospital, they are saying that Yamadayev is alive.

savsane:

Then this will be the 19th failed assassination attempt at Sulim Yamadayev. If he survives.

uliana:

Are you sure it's the 19th?

savsane:

Even the main hero of this will not have the answer for you )

LJ user orkhan - March 31:

Spent the whole day calling a former commander of a former intelligence unit of the former Vostok Battalion on his cell phone every 15 minutes:

- Any news?
- He's alive.
- Are you sure?
- Absolutely.
- We're getting different information here...

I kept going online and reading [numerous] reports to him, which claimed that it was Sulim Yamadayev who died at a Dubai hospital.

- [These are lies], he's alive.
- But perhaps he has died already, but they've just not reported to you yet - three [bullet wound] holes, two next to the heart.
- Calm down, if something happens, I'll be the first one to know, and Sulim can bear things that are even worse.

It seemed to me that he began to sound somewhat unsure, and the internet kept going: died, died, died. There were hundreds of items, it was being reported that his death had been officially confirmed by the [Russian consul in Dubai], then they started quoting relatives...

By 6 PM, I lost patience and [arranged to meet with the source] [...].

- Tell me the truth.
- Alive.
- Are you sure?
- Half an hour ago, they were in his hospital room, he tried to talk, could recognize people, and was even trying to smile.
- [...] My [journalist] colleagues are calling me, the gates [of Yamadayev's house] in [Gudermes, Chechnya] have been opened to receive mourners, there's an official confirmation of his death...
- And who is confirming it?
- [A person named] Krasnogor from our consulates in the Emirates.
- Listen, who do you believe [...], me or [some obscure guy].

I didn't go back to work, went straight home, thinking: How much longer will the guys who knew [Yamadayev] in person refuse to believe, despite everything, and tell each other secretly during get-togethers: "Sulim is actually alive, this whole Dubai story is a good legend for a retreat."

When I returned home, I turned on my laptop and did a web search on Yamadayev - a long row of died, died, died ended with ["alive"]. And really, why did I decide to trust Krasnogor...

LJ user barabanch - March 31:

A source reports: an hour ago, Sulim Yamadayev was alive. As he is now.

***

aleshru:

So who is dead?

barabanch:

Anyone but Sulim.

On April 2, LJ user tverdyi-znak posted a 17-entry summary timeline of the rather confusing coverage of the attack in the Russian media and wrote:

[...] They still can't decide for sure whether he's alive or dead, and this isn't an April 1 joke, it's a pretty gloomy reality... By now it feels surreal. [...]

Below are some more reactions from Russophone and Anglophone bloggers.

LJ user sapojnik:

Reading through the news, I see this headline: "The names of Sulim Yamadayev's killer are now public. All are Russian."
And right after this, another item: "[General Headquarters of the Russian Armed Forces] has lost four leading generals."

"Wow," I thought.

LJ user abpaximov:

Among the versions of the assassination of Sulim Yamadayev I haven't yet seen the one stating that it was done by the Georgian special service as revenge for his role in the 2008 war with South Ossetia. Or have I just missed it?

LJ user dobrokhotov:

So, [Ramzan Kadyrov] has taken the Russian troops out of Chechnya without firing a single shot and has killed his last rival, Sulim Yamadayev (a reminder: not long before that, Kadyrov's people shot his brother, [Ruslan Yamadayev], in the center of Moscow, and somewhat earlier they also killed [Movladi Baisarov] on Leninsky Prospekt [in Moscow]). Whether it was them who killed [Anna Politkovskaya] or not, either way today there's not a single more or less public figure left who is critical of the mass murderer, former [Shamil Basayev]'s fighter, [honorary member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences], "Hero of Russia," president of Chechnya Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov.

Adrian Blomfield, the Daily Telegraph's Moscow correspondent, wrote this on the newspaper's blog - and posted these Twitter updates:

12:14 PM Mar 30th:

Sulim Yamadayev shot, wounded in Dubai. Could this tip Chechnya back into turmoil? It's the latest but most serious shooting outside Russia

12:16 PM Mar 30th:

Yamadayev shooting is evidence that Chechnya's gangster war is being fought outside Chechnya. Killings too in Moscow, Vienna and Istanbul.

12:18 PM Mar 30th:

Will Yamadayev shooting prompt world leaders to press Putin to rein in Kadyrov? Let's hope so. The body count is getting ridiculous.

Finally, La Russophobe has an "editorial" on the Dubai shooting, followed by a discussion in the comments section - here.

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.

Georgia, Russia: Interethnic Relationships

Global Voices Online
Thursday, August 28, 2008

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

Tbilisi-based LJ user shupaka writes this (RUS) about what it feels like to be an ethnic Russian in Tbilisi now:

Today once again I've been asked - how do they treat Russians [in Georgia]? Won't it get them in trouble if they speak Russian in Tbilisi?

My mother is Russian and my mother-in-law is Russian. I asked them, just in case - how do they treat you here? Aren't they oppressing you? Mamas say - no, they aren't oppressing us.

They are Georgian citizens, these mamas of mine, and they are getting as many problems from the Russian leadership as all the other Georgian citizens.

It's easier for my mother-in-law - her parents live in Ukraine; to mama it's tougher - her father and sisters live in Siberia.

Mama speaks Georgian at work, in the street, in stores and on public transportation. With some accent, though, and not always without mistakes, and stranger often ask her: "Sadauri har?" That is, where are you from? Georgians love it when a non-Georgian can speak Georgian.

And my mother-in-law speaks Russian most of the time. And she also teaches Russian to children - a few times in the evening every week she reads the likes of [Korney Chukovsky] and [Nikolay Nosov] to the neighborhood kids. And the number of her students hasn't decreased - she has as many as she had before the occupation.

I've conducted an extremely silly experiment today - I was addressing people in Russian. On a bus, I was saying 'ostanovite, pozhaluysta' ['please stop here'] instead of 'gaacheret,' at a store I was asking for 'butylku borzhoma' ['a bottle of Borjomi mineral water] instead of 'erti bordjomi,' at a drugstore... well, et cetera. I haven't noticed any negative reaction.

Earlier this month, on Aug. 12, LJ user voinodel (Vadim Rechkalov, Russian war correspondent for Moskovsky Komsomolets) posted this "monologue" (RUS) by Ms. Lobzhanidze, a resident of Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, Russia:

- My son-in-law is Ossetian. My 8-year-old grandson would be Ossetian, too - on his father's side, that is. I myself am Russian. By blood, that is. But in my passport, I'm Georgian. They've canceled [the 'ethnicity' line] in passports now, but my last name is Georgian, I've inherited it from my late husband. My son is Georgian in his passport, too, and by blood as well - if, of course, you look at his father's side. He's married to an Armenian. And who am I after all this - my grandson is Ossetian, while my granddaughter is Georgian - if, of course, you look at her father's side?

But I'm most concerned about my son. Anything can happen now. The [South Ossetians] will now come back from the war angry. And they'll begin... I don't even know what to expect...

I thought I was paranoid. I called [the police]. What should I do in this situation, I asked. You see, my son is Georgian. A policewoman asked: and where is he registered, what's his citizenship? I say, he's registered in Vladikavkaz, Russian citizen. He was born here, has never been to Georgia. Doesn't approve of Saakashvili's politics. But our last name is Lobzhanidze. What shall we do?

The woman listened to me carefully and said: take all precaution measures. We've been flooded by all kinds of people, she said. Try to protect him. Don't let him out in the street on his own. How old is your son? He's 30 already, I reply. How can I not let him out. And the policewoman continues: well, I understand you, the situation is tense, but we can't give every person an officer [to guard him/her]. Have there been incidents already, I ask. No, she replies, not yet...

P.S.

All the relatives of [Ms. Lobzhanidze] sit at home since Aug. 8. They don't even go to work. But that's only those who are on her husband's side. The Armenian and Russian relatives don't seem to have anything to fear. Not yet.

South Ossetia: Tskhinvali Photos and Reports

Global Voices Online
Friday, August 22, 2008

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

On Aug. 21, Columbia Journalism Review published Julia Ioffe's overview of several Russian journalists' blogging from the war in South Ossetia. Featured in her piece are reports by LJ user krig42 (Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Steshin) and LJ user ep-news (Evgeny Poddubny, correspondent for TV Center); also mentioned are LJ user m-romanoff (Mikhail Romanov, who, together with Ilya Barabanov - LJ user barabanch - contributed a story from Tskhinvali (RUS) to The New Times weekly) and Moskovsky Komsomolets correspondent Irina Kuksenkova.

Below are a few more blog posts from Russian and North Ossetian journalists, with photos and accounts of what they've seen in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali over the past week.

LJ user voinodel (Vadim Rechkalov, war correspondent for Moskovsky Komsomolets) posted seven photos of Tskhinvali, taken from different perspectives, and wrote this (RUS):

Meet Vitalik. He is my good friend who has come to defend South Ossetia right from [Khankala, a Russian military base near Grozny]. Vitalik and I will now take you on a little guided tour around the ruined Tskhinval.

[photos of Vitalik]

You can photograph Tskhinval like this:

[a close-up photo of two blown-up tanks next to a residential building]

Or like this:

[photo of the same two tanks from a different angle]

But if you photograph it like this?

[four panoramic shots of Tskhinvali taken from a hill overlooking the city]

There are four pages of comments to Rechkalov's post. At one point, the journalist found it necessary to explain the point he was trying to make (RUS) when he posted the photos:

This post has only one message, totally intentional and clearly defined. In case someone has forgotten the information of the first two days. When Tskhinval was called the second [Stalingrad] and it was said that the city no longer exists. And all that.

[...]

I've a feeling that some [of the commenters who care so much about the Motherland] would be happy to see nothing but foundations [of the buildings] in these shots. What's wrong with you, guys? Are you crazy? Have you yourselves ever lived on [nothing but] a foundation? And have you washed yourself from a cup, along with your whole family? If 2,000 dead bodies haven't been confirmed, but, say, only 300 have - don't you like that? You need 2,000? Or, even better, 10,000? So that you could [strike] at Georgians in full force? But is that you who's gonna fight with them? Soldier Bogdanov will [...]. And you'll go on [posting comments], unaware that among those who defended Tskhinval were Georgians, too, and they were good fighters, and people respect them. Because one's ethnicity has nothing to do with it.

There's one message in this post - Tskhinval isn't Stalingrad. And you shouldn't use such words as Stalingrad in vain. [...]

LJ user pro100_petrov posted eight photos from Tskhinvali and wrote (RUS):

[...] In a nutshell: yes, the phrase "has been erased from the face of the earth" is an exaggeration when applied to this city. There are buildings that haven't been damaged too much. Now that they've replaced the windows in them, they look the way they did before the war.

[photo]

But in general the city looks like this:

[three photos, the last one is of a Tskhinvali school]

[photo of Hotel Alan: "Journalists were hiding in the basement here. [...] Damage is significant."]

[photo of a ruined house: "And this, they say, is the result of [Grad multiple-launch rocket system]. Hey, military folks! Is this really Grad?"]

[photo of a tank: "A blown-up Georgian tank. Lots of stuff like this all over the city. Next to the tank, there's a dead Georgian lying in the bushes. Many of them there, too. [...]"]

[photo of people on and around a tank: "Ossetian irregulars. Having their pictures taken with non-working mobile phones next to blown-up tanks."]

LJ user alan_tskhurbaev (North Ossetian journalist Alan Tskhurbaev) had this conversation (RUS) about the level of destruction in Tskhinvali with LJ user pro100-petrov in the comment section to one of his posts:

pro100_petrov:

[...] High-rises in the southern part [of the city] have indeed been damaged severely. But I wouldn't say that only half of the buildings are uninhabitable. I think it's 70-80 percent. Depends on what you consider inhabitable. If a missile makes a hole in the building's wall, but the basement and one room are intact - is this called inhabitable or not?

alan_tskhurbaev:

Yes, this isn't an easy question. Let's say there is a large nine-story building, with a huge hole under the roof, made by a missile. People live in this building, many of them. Should this building be considered destroyed or uninhabitable - or not? Especially when it's likely that the hole has been there since 1991.

But the main thing is that to me Tskhinval looked like a living city, not deserted and not destroyed, as it had been described in the media.

LJ user slonopatam posted a picture of two elderly women posing next to a blown-up tank in downtown Tskhinvali. LJ user butttto commented:

Life goes on... The old people know this better than the young ones...

LJ user liza-valieva (North Ossetian journalist Liza Valieva) posted three photos and wrote this (RUS) about the cleanup efforts in Tskhinvali:

[photo]

One of the first pictures taken in Tskhinval. Georgian prisoners, along with Tskhinvali residents, are cleaning up the city.

As one of the officials of South Ossetia's ministry of internal affairs told me, Georgian prisoners were allowed to wash themselves, were fed and then taken to clean Tskhinval and the surrounding areas. "Let them clean up the mess created by their fellow countrymen," he said.

I think it's a wise decision.

[photo]

I entered one of the first stores that re-opened in Tskhinval, where there was nothing but colored balloons, ketchup and mayo. The vendors were having a lively discussion about something. One of them said this to me in dismay:

[photo]

- Have you seen the Georgian prisoners who are cleaning up out there? If any of my relatives were killed, I'd go and kill one of them.

- They deserve pity, too, - I said, and immediately regretted having said it. I imagined the fury that would befall me. But, to my surprise, it did not happen, she agreed with me right away.

- Yes, I understand, they deserve pity, too.