State of Denial: The 21st Century Russian Republic

Stanislav Markelov was shot to death in January of 2009 while leaving a news conference in Moscow less than half a mile from the Kremlin. He was 34.

Neo-nazi and nationalist hate groups in Russia are called a dark secret within the former Soviet Union. Their existence is down-played by the new, leaner Russian government as inconsequential. Some members of the Russian media question whether many of these groups are, in fact, used as state sanctioned secret police to assassinate voices of dissent against the new government.

These groups, like most groups bound together with a common hatred, claim to fight for their own specific race's civil rights. But, in modern Russia, unlike most hate groups their only measurable effect is in murdering members of their own communities and doing so under the guise of being a "radical nationalist group". Leaders, including new Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, insist despite mounting evidence to the contrary, that it is only a matter of coincidence that these murder victims were also critics and political dissidents with voices heard by the West.

Such was the case with the murder of prominent human rights lawyer and investigative journalist, Stanislav Markelov. Markelov was shot dead before a stunned crowd of onlookers in the middle of a crowded Moscow street on January 19^th 2009.


The Moscow street corner where Markelov and Baburova were shot and killed.

Law, as an international concept, exists as society's shield to protect all of its citizens, particularly the poor who are regularly the most victimized. Russia and it's satellite state-nations, like the Ukraine and Chechnya, are overwhelmed with these victimized poor. In claiming first world status Russia is obligated to maintain this shield, made of ethics and enacted by men, as the most basic of first world statutes - to protect it's own people.

Consequentially, 21^st Russia is a place where men like Markelov are badly needed. Fighting for the rights of citizens and the sovereignty of individuals within the republic became the bulk of Markelov's work in the post-authoritarian era of his nation.

Markelov was a staunch defender of the rights of the Russian people. Rights that guarantee a citizen a legal defense and a legal recourse. He chose extremely difficult cases. In 2006, he represented survivors of the Moscow Opera House Stand-off in which a group of 39 Chechen terrorists were killed along with 129 Russians civilians. Although this rescue operation saved the lives of 800 others it was largely viewed as a debacle. Markelov successfully sued the government on behalf of the survivors and victims families.

At the time of the murder, Markelov was part of another controversial case. He made up a part of the state prosecution's team investigating the murder of author and journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was brutally killed in 2006. Anna Politkovskaya was a fierce anti-war campaigner who wrote exhaustively about atrocities in Chechnya. She was allegedly killed by neo-Nazis with suspected involvement with the FSB, the infamous KGB's successor spy agency.


The 2006 funeral of writer Anna Politkovskaya. The family of Politkovskaya was being represented by Markelov when he was murdered.

The 51-year-old woman, due to her investigation into Russian policy, was reportedly told that she "deserved a bullet in the head" by the high-ranking Russian installed rulers of Chechnya during the course of her own research into the civil war that still rages there. Her body was later found in an elevator at her building shot 5 times. Her accused killers were tried but not convicted in February of 2009.

Markelov also gained infamy when representing the family of Elza Kungayeva, an 18-year-old Chechen girl, who former tank commander Yuri Budanov freely admitted strangling in his quarters in March of 2000. Budanov was given a 10-year sentence but released early for good behavior. Today, Budanov enjoys a wide spread approval among the general Russian populace. He was released from prison 4 days before Markelov and Baburova were murdered.

On that cold winter day in Moscow, January 19^th of 2009, 29-year-old Nikolay Tikhonov and 24-year-old Yevgenia Khasis, allegedly members of a radical neo-nazi nationalistic group, waited for Markelov outside a news conference. The conference was held just a half mile from the Kremlin in the very heart of new, united Russia. As Markelov exited, Tikhonov, wearing a stocking-style mask, approached.

Markelov and Tithonov had met before. Two years prior, Markelov had represented the prosecution of Tikhonov and seven others in connection with the murder of Maria Rozalskaya - another murdered human rights activist. Tithonov, who went into hiding shortly after his conviction, fired a silenced weapon multiple times into Markelov's chest. When Markelov's friend, Anastasia Baburova, a 25-year-old journalist, boldly tried to interfere - Tikhonov turned the silenced pistol her as well. Her attacker shot them both where they had stood and fled.

Tikhonov was captured by the FSB and confessed to the murder a few months later.


The funeral of slain journalist Anastasia Baburova who was killed with Markelov.

Both victims of the assassination were passionate, outspoken critics of Vladimir Putin's new facist leaning government. Russia has experienced a string of contract-style killings of human rights workers and journalists in recent years. This murder, in particular, is so unlike the rest due to the near military precision of the attack and use of a silenced pistol - the hallmark of international spys and assassins. As a rule, most hate groups attack with crude improvised explosives, grenades and drive-bys using cheap machine guns.

If these were in fact contract killings - then who ordered the contract? Why are none of the suspects in these targeted murders members of Russian Mafia or involved organized crime? Why are the targets vocal opponents of Russian government and not police or rival or fellow Mafia?

This dramatic double-murder has led progressive minded Russians to believe that their new democratic government is not very different from their old communist one. Instead of opposition leaders being "disappeared" by KGB they are now apparently brutally murdered in broad day light by puppets of the FSB.

References:
Wikipedia, Stanislav Markelov
San Diego Union-Tribune, Man says he killed lawyer and journalist
New York Times, Two Held in Killings of Russian Lawyer
Robert Amsterdam, Stanislav Markelov 1974-2009
Open Democracy, Stanislav Markelov
New York Times, The Last Article By Anna Politkovskaya