[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 151 (Friday, October 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2081-E2082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 5, 2007

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, as chairman of the U.S. 
Helsinki Commission, I have followed closely the difficulties faced by 
journalists throughout the nations of the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe. Many of these dedicated men and women risk 
financial ruin, physical intimidation and even death at the hands of 
those who fear honesty and truth in print or in the electronic media.
  In this connection, I would call the attention of my distinguished 
colleagues to a tragic anniversary: Sunday, October 7th, 2007, marks 
the one-year anniversary of the death of Russian journalist Anna 
Politkovskaya, who was shot and killed by an unknown assailant or 
assailants at the entrance to her apartment building in Moscow.
  Ms. Politkovskaya was a brave and prolific journalist whose name has 
become synonymous with journalistic courage under fire. Her vivid, on-
the-spot reporting brought to the world's attention the bloody war in 
Russia's breakaway region of Chechnya and the suffering of its victims, 
both Chechen and Russian. In her book ``The Dirty War,'' a compilation 
of articles she had written previously on the conflict, she 
demonstrated a unique gift for telling the stories of people caught in 
the crossfire between the Russian military forces, brutal Chechen 
paramilitaries operating on Moscow's behalf, the indigenous Chechen 
resistance, and Islamic extremists who rushed in from all over the 
world to exploit the conflict. One reviewer wrote that ``her writing 
focuses on the ethics of everyday life and individual misery in the 
midst of Chechnya's catastrophe. It is Chechen civilians and Russian 
conscript soldiers who are the centers of concern here. Politkovskaya's 
most withering scorn is reserved for the political and military classes 
that initiated this war, together with its profiteers, opportunists, 
and contract soldiers straight from Russia's prisons.''

  For her hard-hitting and courageous reporting Ms. Politkovskaya 
earned numerous journalism awards, including the OSCE Parliamentary 
Assembly's annual Prize for Journalism and Democracy in 2003. In 2004, 
she shared the Olof Palme Prize for human rights work with fellow 
Russian human rights activists Ludmila Alexeyeva and Sergei Kovalev.
  On the day Anna Politkovskaya was killed, she was due to file a story 
on the looted reconstruction money intended for Chechnya, and use of 
torture and kidnapping by pro-Moscow Chechen paramilitaries. Clearly, 
her reporting had made a lot of enemies and threatened a lot of 
comfortable positions.
  Anna Politkovskaya was an American citizen, born during the Cold War 
in New York City, where she was exposed to democracy, a free press, and 
a world of ideas denied to most Soviet citizens. Graduating in 1980 
from Moscow State University, she worked for the Soviet newspaper 
Izvestiya during the halcyon days of perestroika. In 1999, she joined 
the staff of Novaya Gazeta, one of the few national Russian newspapers 
at that time that took a critical line toward the Russian government. 
Her dedication to exposing the tragic events in Chechnya resulted in 
around 50 trips to that cauldron of conflict.
  In 2004, she made an attempt to travel to Beslan during the murderous 
school siege, in that village but fell ill with food poisoning on the 
way, an event which some took as a deliberate poison attempt by her 
enemies to kill her. She was very aware that her actions angered many 
in the governments of both

[[Page E2082]]

Chechnya and Russia, but never let threats to her life dissuade her 
from her passion. She was once quoted as saying, ``journalists have a 
duty to report on the subject that matters, just as singers have to 
sing and doctors have to heal.''
  Despite her critical attitude toward her country's political 
leadership, Anna Politkovskaya possessed a deep warmth and love for its 
people. She cared for Russia, and wanted nothing else for the country 
and its people than to see it become a true democracy free from 
corruption and fear. Her death, said former Russian leader Mikhail 
Gorbachev, ``. . . is a savage crime against a professional and serious 
journalist and a courageous woman. It is a blow to the entire 
democratic, independent press. It is a grave crime against the country, 
against all of us.''
  Madam Speaker, the Russian government has announced the arrest of 
several persons implicated in Anna Politkovskaya's murder, and the 
actual shooter has reportedly been determined. However, the 
investigation itself appears to have raised more questions than 
answers, which is, unfortunately, a characteristic of many high-profile 
investigations in Russia nowadays. Let us hope that the investigation 
will be brought to a successful conclusion, and that Anna 
Politikovskaya's killers, who or wherever they are, will be brought to 
justice.

                          ____________________