Asia Pacific Media Network, UCLA, California
July 19 2004

RUSSIA: Russian editor murdered; second in two weeks

The editor of a Moscow arts magazine has been found stabbed to death,
less than two weeks after the murder of a foreign journalist which
raised questions about the political and economic changes in Russia

The Straits Times
Monday, July 19, 2004

MOSCOW – The editor of a Moscow arts magazine has been found stabbed
to death, less than two weeks after the murder of a foreign
journalist which raised questions about the political and economic
changes in Russia.

‘The body of journalist Pail Peloyan, with knife wounds to his chest
and bruises on his face, was found on Saturday,’ the RIA Novosti news
agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

RIA said prosecutors were treating the death as murder. The body had
been found lying at the side of a highway.

Mr Peloyan was the editor of Armyanski Pereulok (Armenian Lane), a
Russian-language magazine specialising in literature and the arts. It
was not clear whether the killing had any connection with his work.

On July 9, American Paul Klebnikov, 41, editor of the Russian Forbes
magazine, was shot to death as he left his Moscow office.

The authorities have described his death as a contract killing and
have said it might be connected to his work. His murder raises the
disturbing question of how far and how fast can Russia’s post-Soviet
disarray go?

‘The country can build skyscrapers and solve international conflicts
and even win tennis tournaments,’ said Mr Peter Klebnikov, Paul’s
brother.

‘But so long as it’s considered completely normal to resolve disputes
and kill a person who is interfering with the way you want to live,
this country is ailing.’

Foreign investor William Browder said: ‘If somebody feels safe enough
to kill the editor of a major Western magazine, we have anarchy in
Russia.’

Mr Klebnikov had called him for articles about corruption at oil
giant Surgutneftegaz and natural-gas monopoly Gazprom.

Mr Klebnikov’s work – informed and sometimes brazen – put him
squarely into the worlds of Russian business, crime, power and wealth
where 36 billionaires control about US$110 billion (S$187 billion).

Their assets are equal to a quarter of the nation’s gross domestic
product, according to the magazine Mr Klebnikov produced.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has called on President
Vladimir Putin to move against the ‘climate of lawlessness’ in which
15 journalists have been killed in Russia in four years.