Europe: Journalist murdered in Russia

Europe: Journalist murdered in Russia

The Guardian – United Kingdom
Jul 19, 2004

Another prominent foreign journalist has been killed in Moscow eight
days after the American investigative reporter Paul Klebnikov was
murdered outside his office.

Pail Peloyan, the editor of the magazine Armenian Lane, was found on
the hard shoulder of Moscow’s large ring road with severe head
injuries and knife wounds to the chest on Saturday morning.

Klebnikov’s killing highlights the intense risks that journalists face
on a daily basis in Russia. Fifteen have been killed since 2000,
although Klebnikov was the first westerner.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the murder and
the Kremlin for the “climate of lawlessness and impunity” that
permitted the killing to be ordered and carried out. It views Russia
as one of the 10 most dangerous places for journalists to work.

Newspapers have speculated Klebnikov, whose ancestors fled to America
during the Bolshevik revolution, was killed because of his work. He
had published a series of lists naming Russia’s richest people, many
of whom were keen to keep their dubiously acquired wealth private.

Klebnikov’s publisher said last week the journalist had been working
on a book about the 1996 killing of TV news presenter Vladislav
Listiyev. Nick Paton Walsh, Moscow