[anna politkovskaya] unanswered questions

The Times today reported that on Friday, the day before her murder, Anna Politkovskaya told Radio Liberty that she was working on a piece on how the Russian-backed Chechen regime was using torture. Her newspaper, the bi-weekly Novaya Gazeta, said today that everyone was asking whether her death was linked to her announcement … [but some] thought it could have been connected to any number of her stories. The issue has overshadowed a visit by President Vladimir Putin to Germany. I asked around and many think there’s something very strange about it all. It was too open, too obviously going to lead to an outcry, too quickly going to turn her into a martyr. Contract killing it certainly was but there were other ways to deal with her. Look at Khodokorvsky, for example. The jury is really out on this one.