Paul Klebnikov
Encyclopedia
Paul Klebnikov (June 3, 1963 – July 9, 2004) was a Russian-American journalist and historian of Russian history
. He worked for Forbes Magazine for over 10 years and at the time of his death was Chief editor of the Russian edition. His murder in Moscow
in 2004 was seen as a blow against investigative journalism
in Russia. The organizers of this crime have never been found.
to a family of Russian émigré
s with a long military and political tradition; his great grandfather was an admiral
in the White Russian
fleet who was assassinated by Bolshevik
s, and his great-great-great-grandfather Ivan Pouschine participated in the Decembrist revolt
in 1825. Klebnikov attended St. Bernard's School
and Phillips Exeter Academy
, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1984. He wrote a doctoral thesis
at the London School of Economics
on Pyotr Stolypin
, the reformist Tsarist prime minister
.
Klebnikov joined Forbes in 1989 and gained a reputation for investigating murky post-Soviet business
dealings and corruption
. He rose to the position of senior editor
, specializing in Russia
n and Eastern Europe
an politics and economics, before becoming the first editor
of Forbes Russian edition when it was launched in April 2004. Observers have suggested Klebnikov may have made powerful enemies because he investigated corruption and sought to shed light on Russian business.
He wrote the book "Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the looting of Russia", a biography
of the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, accusing him of various crimes including fraud, money laundering, links with Chechen mafia, a murder and supporting Chechen separatist movement. Klebnikov also detailed the role Berezovsky played in Putin's rise to power, as well as shaping Russian opinion in support of the Second Chechen War through the use of his media conglomerate ORT. The book was an expansion of a controversial article in Forbes
entitled 'Godfather of the Kremlin?' with the kicker 'Power. Politics. Murder. Boris Berezovsky could teach the guys in Sicily a thing or two.'. Berezovsky filed a libel suit against Forbes
. In 2003 the case was settled when Forbes offered a partial retraction.
In 2003 Klebnikov published his second book Conversation with a Barbarian: Interviews with a Chechen Field Commander on Banditry and Islam, in which Klebnikov provides the transcript of his 15 hour conversation with a Chechen crime lord, politician and separatist commander Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev
; the book focused on the reasons of Chechen war and Chechen Mafia
and tried to explain them in a broad context from the standpoint of religions and civilizations.
street late at night by unknown assailants who fired at least nine shots from a slowly moving car. Klebnikov was shot four times and initially survived, but he bled to death in the hospital because the ambulance
took almost an hour to come, it had no oxygen
bottle, and the hospital elevator that was taking him to the operating room broke. Before he died, Klebnikov described that there were 3 assassins in the car, and that he never met any of them before. The publisher of Forbes Russian edition has said that the murder is "definitely linked to his professional activity". The paper speculated that a list of the 100 wealthiest Russians written by Klebnikov in May 2004 may have motivated the attack.
When Klebnikov was murdered obituaries praised his dedicated journalism but noted concerns about a strain of anti-semitism in his reporting of prominent Jewish figures such as Berezovsky.
Kazbek Dukuzov and Valid Agayev) were arrested in Minsk
, Belarus
, to where they allegedly fled from Russia. They were being held in Minsk KGB jail and were handed over to Russians almost three months later on February 22, 2005. The delay in extradition
, the Belarus authorities said, was because they were waiting for paperwork and necessary evidence from the Russian side. On November 21, 2005, according to the press release from the Russian Prosecutor General, the indictment was sent by prosecutors to court. According to the indictment, ethnic Chechens Kazbek Dukuzov, Magomed Dukuzov, Musa Vakhayev, Magomed Edilsultanov and others were a criminal gang, and they were involved in racketeering
and contract killing
s. A paralegal
from Moscow, Fail Sadretdinov, was co-indicted with them because he allegedly paid the same gang to murder a Moscow businessman Aleksey Pichugin. Kazbek Dukuzov, Vakhayev and Sadretdinov were arrested, while other people indicted were still wanted by the police.
The trial
began on January 10, 2006, in closed session because Russian authorities claimed case-related documents contain information about secret surveillance
methods used by law enforcement. All of the accused pleaded not guilty. Soon the original judge
, Mariya Komarova, fell ill, and on February 13, 2006, according to the Russian law, she was replaced by a different judge, Vladimir Usov. The trial had to be restarted from the very beginning, including the new jury
selection process. The trial ended on May 5, 2006, with a jury verdict of not guilty for all the accused and they were released from custody in the courtroom. On November 9, 2006, the Supreme Court
overturned the acquittal
of three suspects in the killing of Klebnikov and ordered a new trial. The new hearings were scheduled to start in February 2007, but were delayed the following month after one of the suspects failed to show up. In the meanwhile, Fail Sadretdinov was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment on an unrelated fraud
charge.
In August 2006 a source close to the case told Reuters
that the investigation was focusing on a possible link between Klebnikov's murder and his interest in the possible misappropriation
of Russian funds intended for the reconstruction of Chechnya
, ravaged by the decade of fighting
between Chechen rebels and Russian troops. Michael Klebnikov, Paul's brother, said it was a remarkable coincidence that the same eight jurors also acquitted the same two men of the murder of Yan Sergunin, a former Russian deputy prime minister
of Chechnya, with whom Klebnikov had been in contact; Sergunin was shot dead outside a Moscow restaurant just two weeks before Klebnikov's murder.
On December 17, 2007, the retrial, classified as secret, was restarted but immediately halted again because of the continued disappearance of Kazbek Dukuzov.
has asked Russia to accept help in the investigation of Klebnikov's death, but Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika
stated that Russia can cope on its own. Robert Levinson
was involved in an FBI
investigation in Klebnikov's death. On July 9, 2007 the U.S. Department of State released the following statement:
The issue has been raised in conversations between U.S. President George W. Bush
and Russian President Vladimir Putin
.
Forbes reported on July 10, 2009, that "The Russian government recently agreed to resurrect a suspended investigation into the 2004 murder of Forbes journalist Paul Klebnikov and to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice on the inquiry."
posthumously named Klebnikov one of four winners of the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards
.
In the wake of Klebnikov’s murder in 2004, colleagues, friends and family joined together to form the Paul Klebnikov Fund.. The Fund’s stated mission is to promote a civil society in Russia by strengthening a free and independent press and by fostering community values through the preservation and protection of neglected but historic buildings. Each year the Directors award the Paul Klebnikov Fund Prize for Courage in Journalism. The recipients spend several weeks working at an American newspaper, developing an appreciation for American journalistic standards. The Fund also facilitates internships and training programs with western media organizations in Russia. The Fund is a non-profit organization, administered by the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C.
.
In 2005, to honor Klebnikov's commitment to scholarship
and research on Russia and the former Soviet states, the London School of Economics
established the Paul Klebnikov Prize for outstanding masters degree students in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.
Also in 2005, Klebnikov's Exeter classmates endowed an annual Klebnikov Lecture to honor his memory. The first Klebnikov Lecture was held on May 12, 2006, at the 25th reunion of Klebnikov's Exeter class (1981), and featured remarks by Wall Street Journal correspondent and Exeter alumnus Jon Karp.
Project Klebnikov
is a global alliance specifically devoted to developing new information on the Klebnikov murder and to furthering some of the investigative work Klebnikov began, with reporters and editors drawn from the full spectrum of international media outlets.
History of Russia
The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...
. He worked for Forbes Magazine for over 10 years and at the time of his death was Chief editor of the Russian edition. His murder in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 2004 was seen as a blow against investigative journalism
Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism...
in Russia. The organizers of this crime have never been found.
Life
Paul Klebnikov was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to a family of Russian émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s with a long military and political tradition; his great grandfather was an admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
in the White Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
fleet who was assassinated by Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, and his great-great-great-grandfather Ivan Pouschine participated in the Decembrist revolt
Decembrist revolt
The Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
in 1825. Klebnikov attended St. Bernard's School
St. Bernard's School
St. Bernard's School, founded in 1904 by Francis Tabor and John Jenkins, is a private all-male elementary school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. St. Bernard's offers motivated young boys of diverse backgrounds an exceptionally thorough, rigorous, and enjoyable introduction to learning and...
and Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1984. He wrote a doctoral thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
on Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...
, the reformist Tsarist prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
.
Klebnikov joined Forbes in 1989 and gained a reputation for investigating murky post-Soviet business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
dealings and corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
. He rose to the position of senior editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, specializing in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an politics and economics, before becoming the first editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of Forbes Russian edition when it was launched in April 2004. Observers have suggested Klebnikov may have made powerful enemies because he investigated corruption and sought to shed light on Russian business.
He wrote the book "Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the looting of Russia", a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, accusing him of various crimes including fraud, money laundering, links with Chechen mafia, a murder and supporting Chechen separatist movement. Klebnikov also detailed the role Berezovsky played in Putin's rise to power, as well as shaping Russian opinion in support of the Second Chechen War through the use of his media conglomerate ORT. The book was an expansion of a controversial article in Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
entitled 'Godfather of the Kremlin?' with the kicker 'Power. Politics. Murder. Boris Berezovsky could teach the guys in Sicily a thing or two.'. Berezovsky filed a libel suit against Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
. In 2003 the case was settled when Forbes offered a partial retraction.
In 2003 Klebnikov published his second book Conversation with a Barbarian: Interviews with a Chechen Field Commander on Banditry and Islam, in which Klebnikov provides the transcript of his 15 hour conversation with a Chechen crime lord, politician and separatist commander Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev
Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev
Khozh-Ahmed Tashtamirovich Noukhayev , also spelled Hozh-Ahmed Nukhaev, Nukhayev or Noukhaev, was a leader of the Chechen mafia known as Obshina and a prominent figure in Chechen politics...
; the book focused on the reasons of Chechen war and Chechen Mafia
Chechen mafia
The Chechen mafia is one of the largest organized crime groups operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia gangs, which originally consisted of criminals of Chechen ethnicity who later also tried to recruit former Russian special military forces, police and army officers...
and tried to explain them in a broad context from the standpoint of religions and civilizations.
Murder
On July 9, 2004, Klebnikov was attacked on a MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
street late at night by unknown assailants who fired at least nine shots from a slowly moving car. Klebnikov was shot four times and initially survived, but he bled to death in the hospital because the ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
took almost an hour to come, it had no oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
bottle, and the hospital elevator that was taking him to the operating room broke. Before he died, Klebnikov described that there were 3 assassins in the car, and that he never met any of them before. The publisher of Forbes Russian edition has said that the murder is "definitely linked to his professional activity". The paper speculated that a list of the 100 wealthiest Russians written by Klebnikov in May 2004 may have motivated the attack.
When Klebnikov was murdered obituaries praised his dedicated journalism but noted concerns about a strain of anti-semitism in his reporting of prominent Jewish figures such as Berezovsky.
Russian investigation
On October 7, 2004, Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) officer Roman Slivkin was arrested on suspicion of involvement in Klebnikov's murder. On November 29, 2004, two main suspects (ethnic ChechensChechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
Kazbek Dukuzov and Valid Agayev) were arrested in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, to where they allegedly fled from Russia. They were being held in Minsk KGB jail and were handed over to Russians almost three months later on February 22, 2005. The delay in extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
, the Belarus authorities said, was because they were waiting for paperwork and necessary evidence from the Russian side. On November 21, 2005, according to the press release from the Russian Prosecutor General, the indictment was sent by prosecutors to court. According to the indictment, ethnic Chechens Kazbek Dukuzov, Magomed Dukuzov, Musa Vakhayev, Magomed Edilsultanov and others were a criminal gang, and they were involved in racketeering
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
and contract killing
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
s. A paralegal
Paralegal
Paralegal is used in most jurisdictions to describe a paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work. This is true in the United States and many other countries. However, in Ontario, Canada, paralegals are licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, giving paralegals an...
from Moscow, Fail Sadretdinov, was co-indicted with them because he allegedly paid the same gang to murder a Moscow businessman Aleksey Pichugin. Kazbek Dukuzov, Vakhayev and Sadretdinov were arrested, while other people indicted were still wanted by the police.
The trial
Trial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
began on January 10, 2006, in closed session because Russian authorities claimed case-related documents contain information about secret surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
methods used by law enforcement. All of the accused pleaded not guilty. Soon the original judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, Mariya Komarova, fell ill, and on February 13, 2006, according to the Russian law, she was replaced by a different judge, Vladimir Usov. The trial had to be restarted from the very beginning, including the new jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
selection process. The trial ended on May 5, 2006, with a jury verdict of not guilty for all the accused and they were released from custody in the courtroom. On November 9, 2006, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....
overturned the acquittal
Acquittal
In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the accused is free from the charge of an offense, as far as the criminal law is concerned. This is so even where the prosecution is abandoned nolle prosequi...
of three suspects in the killing of Klebnikov and ordered a new trial. The new hearings were scheduled to start in February 2007, but were delayed the following month after one of the suspects failed to show up. In the meanwhile, Fail Sadretdinov was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment on an unrelated fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
charge.
In August 2006 a source close to the case told Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
that the investigation was focusing on a possible link between Klebnikov's murder and his interest in the possible misappropriation
Misappropriation
In law, misappropriation is the intentional, illegal use of the property or funds of another person for one's own use or other unauthorized purpose, particularly by a public official, a trustee of a trust, an executor or administrator of a dead person's estate or by any person with a responsibility...
of Russian funds intended for the reconstruction of Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, ravaged by the decade of fighting
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
between Chechen rebels and Russian troops. Michael Klebnikov, Paul's brother, said it was a remarkable coincidence that the same eight jurors also acquitted the same two men of the murder of Yan Sergunin, a former Russian deputy prime minister
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
of Chechnya, with whom Klebnikov had been in contact; Sergunin was shot dead outside a Moscow restaurant just two weeks before Klebnikov's murder.
On December 17, 2007, the retrial, classified as secret, was restarted but immediately halted again because of the continued disappearance of Kazbek Dukuzov.
U.S. reaction
The United States SenateUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
has asked Russia to accept help in the investigation of Klebnikov's death, but Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika
Yury Chaika
Yury Yakovlevich Chaika is the current Prosecutor General of Russia.-Career:Chaika began his career as an electrician in a shipyard. After serving in the army, he graduated from Sverdlovsk Institute of Law in 1976 and began work at Irkutsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office where he served as an...
stated that Russia can cope on its own. Robert Levinson
Robert Levinson
Robert A. “Bob” Levinson is an American private detective and former FBI agent. He disappeared in March 2007 when visiting Iran's Kish Island while apparently researching a cigarette-smuggling case...
was involved in an FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
investigation in Klebnikov's death. On July 9, 2007 the U.S. Department of State released the following statement:
July 9 marks the third anniversary of the murder of American citizen Paul Klebnikov, who was the editor of Forbes Russia magazine. The U.S. Government recognizes the attention the Russian Government at the highest levels has devoted to this case and encourages it to rededicate itself to making resolution of this case a law enforcement priority. We reiterate our readiness to provide assistance to Russian authorities in bringing the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. The intimidation and murder of journalists is an affront to free and independent media and all who respect democratic values, and must not be tolerated. We urge Russia to take steps that protect all journalists, enable them to operate inside Russia without fear for their lives, and guarantee freedom of expression.
The issue has been raised in conversations between U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
.
Forbes reported on July 10, 2009, that "The Russian government recently agreed to resurrect a suspended investigation into the 2004 murder of Forbes journalist Paul Klebnikov and to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice on the inquiry."
Legacy
In 2004, the Committee to Protect JournalistsCommittee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
posthumously named Klebnikov one of four winners of the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards
CPJ International Press Freedom Awards
The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honour journalists around the world who show courage in defending press freedom in the face of attacks, threats or imprisonment. Created in 1991, the awards are administered by the Committee to Protect Journalists....
.
In the wake of Klebnikov’s murder in 2004, colleagues, friends and family joined together to form the Paul Klebnikov Fund.. The Fund’s stated mission is to promote a civil society in Russia by strengthening a free and independent press and by fostering community values through the preservation and protection of neglected but historic buildings. Each year the Directors award the Paul Klebnikov Fund Prize for Courage in Journalism. The recipients spend several weeks working at an American newspaper, developing an appreciation for American journalistic standards. The Fund also facilitates internships and training programs with western media organizations in Russia. The Fund is a non-profit organization, administered by the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
In 2005, to honor Klebnikov's commitment to scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
and research on Russia and the former Soviet states, the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
established the Paul Klebnikov Prize for outstanding masters degree students in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.
Also in 2005, Klebnikov's Exeter classmates endowed an annual Klebnikov Lecture to honor his memory. The first Klebnikov Lecture was held on May 12, 2006, at the 25th reunion of Klebnikov's Exeter class (1981), and featured remarks by Wall Street Journal correspondent and Exeter alumnus Jon Karp.
Project Klebnikov
Project Klebnikov
Project Klebnikov is a global media alliance dedicated to investigating the July 2004 murder of journalist Paul Klebnikov and other subjects. The organization's goals also include investigating cases of other journalists killed in Russia, continuing Klebnikov's legacy of investigative journalism,...
is a global alliance specifically devoted to developing new information on the Klebnikov murder and to furthering some of the investigative work Klebnikov began, with reporters and editors drawn from the full spectrum of international media outlets.
External links
- Paul Klebnikov: Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism, ISBN 0-15-601330-4
- Obituary The EconomistThe EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
- Project Klebnikov