Human Rights Leader Poisoned Posted by James Lamond

On Tuesday, one day before pretrial hearings in Moscow into the killing of the journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, her lawyer Karinna Moskalenko was rushed ill to the hospital.  The next day police found toxic mercury pellets in her car.

Ms. Moskalenko is the leading human rights attorney in Russia representing high profile Kremlin critics including Ms. Politkovskaya, chess champion and dissident leader Gary Kasparov, the families of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko, imprisoned former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Chechen war victims.  I was lucky enough to have met Ms. Moskalenko in April and I found her to be one of the most impressive people I have ever met.  Her work with the International Protection Centre is of incredible importance.  She and her team have won 27 cases against the Russian government on human rights issues at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and have more than 100 applications pending, enduring threats and break-ins at her office. 

Unfortunately, for one of her highest profile cases she was unable to be in court.  Her illness has prevented her from traveling to Moscow to take part in the hearings regarding slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya and a judge in Moscow refused a request that the session be delayed because of Ms. Moskalenko’s absence.  Ms. Politkovskaya was an ardent critic of the Kremlin who had chronicled allegations of Russian abuse in Chechnya and was shot to death in her apartment building in 2006.

So on Wednesday, behind closed doors, the hearings into Politkovskaya’s death began without Moskalenko there. 

If Ms. Moskalenko was in fact poisoned by people with ties to the Kremlin- as many suspect- it would be the latest extrajudicial crackdown on freedoms in Russia.  After Putin and his leadership destroyed any semblance of a free press in Russia and concentrated power in the hands of loyal supporters, one by one those who have challenged the Kremlin have been poisoned, shot, or imprisoned.  Now it looks like these perpetrators are turning their sights to Ms. Moskalenko. 

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

If Ms. Moskalenko was in fact poisoned by people with ties to the Kremlin- as many suspect- it would be the latest extrajudicial crackdown on freedoms in Russia. After Putin and his leadership destroyed any semblance of a free press in Russia and concentrated power in the hands of loyal supporters, one by one those who have challenged the Kremlin have been poisoned, shot, or imprisoned. Now it looks like these perpetrators are turning their sights to Ms. Moskalenko.

This is a bit reckless isn't it? Surely when one makes charges of this kind, one should offer some evidence beyond "if", "as many suspect", "it would be" and "it looks like".

Frankly, I have trouble attaching credibility to any groups that associate themselves with Khodorkovsky, Berezovky or any of the other former oligarchs. If these Russian human rights organizations want a broader hearing, why don't they stop compromising their message by working as mob lawyers?

[Zathras]

Young Mr. Lamond clearly is not sophisticated enough to understand the vital importance of all the critical issues on which we must work closely with Russia, or how essential it is that we go into full cringe mode whenever the Russian government decides to invade a neighboring country or assassinate a few domestic critics. He is obviously extreme, very scary and probably insane.

[Dan Kervick]

Zathras, people seem to get assassinated all over the place in the endless byzantine intrigues and ruthless power games involving Russia and powerful Russians. Some of the people who get assassinated appear to be useful - as either willing servants or guileless pawns - to certain expatriot Russian gangsters and associated Western carpetbaggers. And the latter operate their machinery of high-priced western lawyers, public relations mouthpieces, and foreign government and media connections to promote the story they want to tell, and to work their way back into power and a greater share of the action. One of these predatory godfathers even managed to get a pardon from an American president. And Citizen Boris openly admits to be plotting and fomenting violent revolution in Russia from his UK perch.

So the Anna Politikovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko assasinations get lots of attention. And that's fine. But what about Paul Klebnikov? He was a brave investigative reporter as well, but his assassination doesn't get nearly the same kind of press. Perhaps he wasn't as useful to the right people?

I won't begin to pretend I understand one half of one percent of what I read about Russia and its neighborhood. As Churchill said, trying to follow events in Russia is like watching two dogs fighting under the carpet. The money laundering, the heroin rackets, the energy rackets, the arms rackets, the anti-terror campaigns, the brutal wars and the brutal insurgencies, the clans and gangs, the foreign government intrigues. Who knows where the criminality ends and the state begins? And who knows which thugs are the worst. For now, Russians seem to think of Putin as the guy who kicked out the riff-raff, stopped most of the looting and dismantling of the Russian economy, re-consolidated the power of the Russian state and cracked down on the enemies of the Russian people. I can't say myself if they are right. But I'm always skeptical of the latest liberal darlings under the wing or in the employ of Moscow-on-the-Thames or other oligarchs.

[James Lamond]

Zathras,
Thank you for your comment. If you look at any number of my previous postings, you will notice that I do recognize the importance if working with Russia. In fact I have repeatedly been a critic of John McCain’s unwillingness to work with the country. I have said a number of times that there is no major challenge the United States and the international community can address without the cooperation of both Russia and China. I criticized McCain’s argument that we should exclude Russia from the G8, and I am quite frankly bothered by his saber-rattling towards Russia.

That said- Russia, under Putin’s rule, has gone down a dangerous path with a complete lack of political dialogue or civil society. Putin intentionally weakened the autonomy of the parliament, eliminated regional elections, and appointed regional governors loyal to him. Several critical journalists have been murdered, media outlets have been silenced, liberal academics and activists have been prosecuted under false charges, and international human rights groups have been expelled because of tax violations. This combined with an economy based solely on resource extraction is not a sustainable or stable path for Russia to go down- and an unstable Russia is not good for anyone. Michael McFaul wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs about this topic, which would recommend reading.

Nowhere in my posting did I say that we should disengage with Russia or even mention U.S. policy towards the country. I was arguing that Ms. Moskalenko’s work has been incredibly important and that it is a sign that those who challenge the Kremlin will continue to be targeted.

I believe that the best path for Russia- and the world- is a more democratic and open society which also engages in the international community.

Thank you for your comment and for reading Democracy Arsenal

[Dan Kervick]

Michael McFaul wrote a piece in Foreign Affairs about this topic, which would recommend reading.

Michael McFaul is a dangerous, megalomaniacal fanatic who would likely get millions of people killed if he is ever allowed to manipulate the levers of actual political power. He believes American power should be directed toward a totalizing "offensive" program of global regime change, until it succeeds in the "creation of an international community of democratic states that encompasses every region of the planet."

He is one of the "International Patrons" of the Henry Jackson Society, a sort of UK extension of the neoconservative movement, whose other patrons are a veritable Who's Who of the neoconservative movement, and include: Max Boot, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Dore Gold, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Clifford May, Joshua Muravchik, Richard Perle, Natan Sharansky, Stephen Solarz and James Woolsey.

[Zathras]

In case it was not obvious, every word of my post above was written with tongue buried deep in cheek, with the exception of the phrase "full cringe mode," an expression I believe to accurately reflect the posture of most DA contributors during the Georgian crisis last summer.

I believe in the importance of relations with Russia, too, and did not approve of the theatrics of some American politicians during this episode. However, Russia is not New Zealand; Russian good faith can never be assumed in the absence of abundant evidence, and the evident nostalgia for the Soviet period among the Russian political leadership suggests the same is true about Russian judgement. I'm also less concerned about people who rattle sabers than about overarmed petrostates that actually use them.

I do not regard any of this as inconsistent with American engagement with Russia, and disagree with nothing James Lamond says in the main post here. If I have unfairly imputed to him the obsequiousness toward Putin's regime characteristic of some other contributors here, I apologize.

[cheap rs gold]

I give runescape gold to my friends. They usually asked me to
buy runescape for them. I know where to buy
rs gold
runescape money
The supplier give me the best service.

[eve isk]

When you have eve isk, you will become strong. With eve online isk, you can upgrade and admire by others. You can buy eve online isk to start the journey of the world. So, do not hesitate, let us move to buy isk

[dd]

I hope i can get FFXI Gil in low price,
Yesterday i bought FFXI gold for my friend.

[Pirates of the Burning Sea Gold]

Do want to know the magic of online games, and here you can get more Pirates of the Burning Sea Gold. Do you want to have a try? Come on and potbs gold can make you happy.