Russian 'activists' detained before conference

At least one Briton was among five human rights activists detained in Russia trying to attend a conference commemorating murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The five, including citizens of Spain and Germany, were among dozens who travelled to Nizhny Novgorod for the conference, said Svetlana Gannushkina, the head of the non-governmental Civic Assistance Committee.

Police in Nizhny Novgorod, about 250 miles east of Moscow, refused to comment yesterday about the foreigners’ detention, and local officials could not be reached. Interfax news agency quoted a police official as saying that the activists had been detained for breaking local registration requirements.

Meanwhile, journalists and supporters of Russia’s beleaguered opposition are planning to hold ceremonies in Moscow today to mark the first anniversary of the murder of Politkovskaya, a world-renowned investigative reporter and a critic of the Kremlin.

Politkovskaya had won international acclaim for her reporting of atrocities against civilians in war-scarred Chechnya.

Her death, in an execution-style killing in the entry-way of her Moscow apartment building, cast a harsh light on the state of civil society and the safety of journalists and government critics under President Vladimir Putin.

Conference organisers said the foreign activists’ detention was part of an official campaign to thwart the gathering, where participants planned to discuss the investigation of Politkovskaya’s murder as well as the state of journalism in Russia.

Organisers said authorities had pressured the venue owners into reneging on a lease agreement and pressuring hotel administrators to block reservations from some attendees.

“This is not just the idiocy of provincial life, this is also the idiocy of the federal government,” Gannushkina said.

Yesterday prosecutors again interrogated Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, whose rights group, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, has been critical of government policies in Chechnya and was ordered closed by the Supreme Court for allegedly promoting extremism.

Prosecutors recently opened a new criminal investigation into Dmitriyevsky and the successor group he was involved in, the Nizhny Novgorod Fund for Tolerance, for allegedly using pirated computer software.

He accused local and federal government officials of being terrified of the renewed criticism of Russian government policies and the failure to solve Politkovskaya’s killing as well as those of a dozen other journalists in Russia.

“It’s a mad house, simply,” Dmitriyevsky, who was an organiser of the conference, told Ekho Moskvy radio. “On the one hand, this is all hysteria; on the other hand, it’s like they’re spitting on her grave, demonstratively.”

Russia’s top prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, last month announced what he said was a major breakthrough in the investigation to find Politkovskaya’s murderers.

But doubts have grown deeper as suspects were released and others were found to have had alibis.

The government-run newspaper Rossisskaya Gazeta reported Saturday that a criminal gang boss from Ukraine was detained as a suspect in Politkovskaya’s murder. Last month, the former head of a Chechen district was charged as an accomplice in organising the killing – a charge his lawyer vigorously denied.

Some Putin critics have said Russian security services organised her killing because of her persistent reporting on atrocities in Chechnya and her biting criticism of the Kremlin.

But Ilya Politkovsky, the journalist’s 22-year-old son, said he doubted that government authorities would be interested in arranging Politkovskaya’s death, given the negative perceptions of Russia that had following the killing.

“It’s difficult to say, but it seems to me a political (motivation) for her killing wouldn’t be very advantageous, but that’s my own opinion,” he said.

Politkovskaya was the 13th journalist killed in a contract-style killing in Russia since Putin took office in 2000, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Nobody has been convicted in any of the cases.