Economist: Trump: Will the West Survive

In Warsaw, America’s president barely mentions democracy

 Earlier American administrations defined “the West” with reference to values such as democracy, liberty and respect for human rights. Mr Trump and many of his advisers, including the speech’s authors, Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller, apparently see it as rooted in ethnicity, culture and religion.
.. When George W. Bush visited Poland for his first presidential visit, in 2001, he referred to democracy 13 times. When Barack Obama spoke in Warsaw in 2014, he mentioned democracy nine times. For Mr Trump, once sufficed.
.. Mr Trump invoked the “blood of patriots”, and the ties of family and God. The rhetoric sounded strikingly similar to that used by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party that governs Poland, and its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
..The crowd hurled insults at opposition politicians, booing when Lech Walesa, the anti-communist hero and a critic of the current government, left the square.
.. According to polling by Pew, just 23% have confidence in America’s president to do the right thing, down from 58% under Mr Obama.
.. At a news conference, he insisted that no one knows for sure whether Russia interfered with America’s presidential election (contradicting the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies).
.. Still, Mr Trump did unambiguously endorse NATO’s Article 5
.. But the greatest reason for Poland’s government to be delighted with Mr Trump was what he did not mention: PiS’s undermining of democratic institutions to entrench its own power. The party has stuffed the civil service and the diplomatic corps with loyalists and has weakened the independence of the judiciary. It has transformed the national broadcaster into a mouthpiece of the state. Independent journalists face new restrictions. The European Commission has warned the government that its reforms pose “a systemic risk to the rule of law.”

Sensing Chaos, Russia Takes A ‘Wait-And-See’ Approach To Trump

David, you say in this new piece that Vladimir Putin’s resentment of the West is rooted not in ideology but in his experience of the decline and fall of Russian power and pride. So can you explain what that sense of the loss of Russian power and pride is about?

.. And Vladimir Putin was not a liberal intellectual. He was somebody who volunteered for the KGB as a teenager, whose father was a badly, badly wounded veteran of the – what’s called the Great Patriotic War, second world war in Russia. And he experienced that as a KGB officer who saw that Moscow had lost its grip not just on Warsaw and Budapest and Berlin, but also on Georgia and Azerbaijan and Armenia. And even within Russia there was talk of Russia itself breaking into smaller components. This is the drama he experienced.

And then in the ’90s, he saw the Yeltsin government, under the name of Demokratiya – Demokratiya kind of fail on its promise in so many ways. And an economic depression came along that for many people was incredibly painful, like the ’30s in the United States. So, again, a lot of people in Russia, exemplified by Putin, saw this as a crash followed by chaos, followed by poverty. And that’s a very different view than most Americans see 1991 as.

.. And Putin was blessed, you know, when he came to power in 2000 and eventually in 2003, 2004 not only by an increasing stability in society but also oil prices shot through the roof. And that benefited the Russian economy, especially the cities, especially people in the main industry, which is oil and gas. But it’s proved illusory because the Russian economy, once oil and gas prices have declined, showed its weakness. And so eventually, Putin not only became more and more disenchanted with the West, he also decided that he needed an operating ideology.

.. And I don’t know how sincere he is in this. But it’s certainly – there’s a greater sense of conservatism, that’s what that anti-gay legislation was about, to put it in opposition to the libertine, you know, decadent West, and growing nationalism, patriotic pride. You go turn on Russian television any night, there’s an enormous sense over and over of Russian-ness, of Russian pride, of patriotism in a way that there was not in the ’90s.

.. So when Americans giggle at him doing the butterfly in the middle of a roaring river or strip to the waist on a horse or, you know, kind of like a James Bond villain, you know, in some sort of weird craft in the ocean, Russians see that as a kind of machismo version of Russian statehood.

.. Here is our man. He speaks bluntly to the West. He doesn’t take any guff from the West. He’s not swallowing stuff the way Yeltsin did. He is standing up for us, for Russian-ness. And everything that we’re doing to them is something that they’ve been doing to us for generations. So the title of our piece is called “Active Measures.” This is not a one-way street. The United States has been fooling around in – it doesn’t take propaganda to say this is true.

.. Yes, it’s true that Russians have been involved in all sorts of Cold War missions, but so have we. We have given ample evidence to Russia and else and the world to show that in the past, the United States got involved in elections, got involved in regime change. And, you know, Iraq and Libya are only the most recent evidence of it. So as Ben Rhodes, a Obama administration official said to us, you know, we give him enough rope to hang us, in a certain sense.

.. What Vladimir Putin fears most of all is internal chaos. So when he looks at Tahrir Square…

GROSS: Like people defying him…

REMNICK: Absolutely. So when he looks at…

GROSS: …Rebelling against him.

REMNICK: When he looks at Tahrir Square in Cairo, when he looks at Maidan uprisings in Kiev, closer to home, and when he looked at the demonstrations in Moscow on the Bolotnaya Square, what’s called Swampy Square in 2011, he sees those as rehearsal for the – for a regime change in Moscow. And he thinks that not only is the United States a part of this and behind this, that Hillary Clinton gave, quote, unquote, “the signal” to demonstrators in Moscow in 2011. That’s why – that’s part of why he despised Hillary Clinton so very much.

.. He wants no more expansion of NATO to say the least, and he would like to see greater dissent and dissention within Western institutions.

He is delighted to see the rise of not only Donald Trump in the United States, which I think he sees as causing us chaos and for us to look more and more inward and to be more and more divided. He also is delighted to see the rise of nationalist politicians in France, in Germany, in Holland because what happens as a result is that there’s more, therefore, fractiousness and chaos within those countries. And institutions like NATO, the European Union are called more into question. That’s his motive.

.. But when it comes to television, it is neo-Soviet. There’s no question about it, and there are certain people that are just never going to be invited on television, and you are not going to hear Vladimir Putin criticized. That’s that’s the be-all and end-all.

And so when people go on and on, as does Trump, about how unbelievably popular Putin is and he has an 85 percent popularity rating, no small part of that is the information space of television. Now, there are other elements of it too. I have to readily admit his popularity is not just rooted in propaganda, but that’s a big element of it.

.. On February 17, he tweeted (reading) the fake news media, failing New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, CNN, is not my enemy. It is the enemy of the American people.

REMNICK: Yeah, what a phrase, the enemy of the people.

GROSS: Yeah, I know. That goes back to Stalin, right?

OSNOS: I recognize that from somewhere.

REMNICK: Well, it goes back to Robespierre. It is an ugly, ugly phrase. I don’t know how self-aware Donald Trump is of that kind of phrase. I guarantee you Steve Bannon knows what enemy of the people means. Stalin used it to keep people terrified. If you were branded a vrag naroda, an enemy of the people, you could guarantee that very soon there would be a knock in the middle of the night at your door and your fate would be horrific.

To hear that kind of language directed at the American press is an emergency. It’s an emergency. It’s not a political tactic. And if it’s a political tactic, it’s a horrific one. And that needs to be resisted not just by people like me who are, you know, editors or writers but all of us. This is part of what distinguishes American democracy. And it’s untenable, immoral and anti-American.

.. it’s the kind of language that autocrats use in the beginning. And where it will go, we don’t know yet. But he is obviously – this is beyond dog whistles. He is signaling to the base that your enemy, your enemy is those people.

That’s how autocrats behave. They create an other. Whether it’s the press, whether it’s ethnic or otherwise, it’s the creation of an other. And I find it – I just, you know, it has to be stood up against.

.. Some of the worry of people who are concerned about our behavior vis-a-vis Russia now is who’s going to talk up about human rights? When Alexei Navalny, the one person who seemed to be ready to run against Putin in a presidential race in 2018, was eliminated from consideration by a court, which is very much under Putin’s control, and his political possibilities were erased – and by the way, Navalny’s brother is in a prison right now – when that happened, did the White House say a single word about this? Not a word, not a word.

.. It was very interesting to see George W. Bush, who was criticized quite a lot in the pages of The New Yorker for eight years and more, go on “The Today Show” the other day and in no uncertain terms – and this is a guy who was hammered by The New York Times, by The Washington Post, by The New Yorker and God knows who else – speak up for a free press, speak up for the role the press plays in the functioning of a flawed, yet healthy American democracy or any kind of democracy.

List of journalists killed in Russia[edit] W

What follows is a list of journalists (reporters, editors, cameramen, photographers) who have been killed in Russia since 1992. It includes deaths from all violent, premature and unexplained causes; more information can be found in the English and Russian versions of the IFJ database.[48][49] An indication whether the death is certainly [J], possibly [?J] or most probably not [nJ] linked to the journalist’s investigative work and publications follows each name.

In Full:

Under Putin (incl. 2nd Chechen conflict)[edit]

2000–2002[edit]

2000[77]

  • 1 February – Vladimir Yatsina, a photocorrespondent with ITAR-TASS. On his first and only trip to Chechnya he was kidnapped and later killed (by a group of Wahhabis some suggest).[78] Homicide [J].
  • 10 February – Ludmila Zamana, Samara. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 9 March – Artyom Borovik, Sovershenno sekretno periodical and publishing house, director and journalist. Sheremetyevo-1 Airport, Moscow. Incident not confirmed [?J].
  • 22 March – Luisa Arzhieva, correspondent for Istina mira newspaper (Moscow). Avtury, Chechnya. Crossfire [?J].
  • 17 April – Oleg Polukeyev, Homicide.
  • 1 May – Boris Gashev, literary critic. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 13 May – Alexander Yefremov, Chechnya. A photojournalist with west Siberian newspaper Nashe Vremya, Yefremov died when militants blew up a military jeep in which he was travelling. On previous assignments, Yefremov won acclaim for his news photographs from the war-torn region. Crossfire [J].
  • 16 July – Igor Domnikov, from Novaya Gazeta, Moscow. Struck over the head with a hammer in the stairwell of his Moscow apartment building, Domnikov was in a coma for two months. His murderer was identified in 2003 and convicted in 2007 [2]. The men who ordered and organised the attack have been named by his paper but not charged. Homicide [J].
  • 26 July – Sergei Novikov, Radio Vesna, Smolensk. Shot in a contract killing in stairwell of his apartment building. Claimed that he often criticized the administration of Smolensk Region. Homicide [?J].
  • 21 September – Iskander Khatloni, Radio Free Europe, Moscow. A native of Tajikistan, Khatloni was killed at night in an axe attack on the street outside his Moscow apartment block. His assailant and the motive of the murder remain unknown. A RFE/RL spokeswoman said Khatloni worked on stories about the human-rights abuses in Chechnya.[79] Homicide [nJ].
  • 3 October – Sergei Ivanov, Lada-TV, Togliatti. Shot five times in the head and chest in front of his apartment building. As director of largest independent television company in Togliatti, he was an important player on the local political scene.[80] Homicide. Gang responsible on trial [nJ].
  • 18 October – Georgy Garibyan, journalist with Park TV (Rostov), murdered in Rostov-on-Don [nJ].
  • 20 October – Oleg Goryansky, freelance journalist, press & TV. Murdered in Cherepovets, Vologda Region. Conviction [nJ].
  • 21 October – Raif Ablyashev, photographer with Iskra newspaper. Kungur, Perm Region. Homicide [nJ].
  • 3 November – Sergei Loginov, Lada TV (Togliatti). Incident not confirmed [nJ].
  • 20 November – Pavel Asaulchenko, cameraman for Austrian TV, Moscow. Contract killing. Conviction of perpetrator [nJ].
  • 23 November – Adam Tepsurkayev, Reuters, Chechnya. A Chechen cameraman, he was shot at his neighbour’s house in the village of Alkhan-Kala (aka Yermolovka). Tepsurkayev filmed most of Reuters’ footage from Chechnya in 2000, including the Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev having his foot amputated. Homicide (war crime) [J].
  • 28 November – Nikolai Karmanov, retired journalist. Lyubim, Yaroslavl Region. Homicide [nJ].
  • 23 December – Valery Kondakov, freelance photographer. Killed in Armavir, Krasnodar Region [nJ].

2001[81]

  • 1 February – Eduard Burmagin, Homicide.
  • 24 February – Leonid Grigoryev, Homicide [nJ].
  • 8 March – Andrei Pivovarov, Homicide.
  • 31 March – Oleg Dolgantsev, Homicide [nJ].
  • 17 May – Vladimir Kirsanov,[82] chief editor. Kurgan, Urals Federal District. Homicide [J].
  • 2 June – Victor Popkov, Novaya gazeta contributore, died in Moscow Region hospital. Wounded in Chechnya two months earlier. Crossfire [J].
  • 11 September – Andrei Sheiko, Homicide [nJ].
  • 19 September – Eduard Markevich, 29, editor and publisher of local newspaper Novy Reft in Sverdlovsk Region. Shot in the back[82] in a contract killing, homicide [J].
  • 5 November – Elina Voronova, Homicide [nJ].
  • 16 November – Oleg Vedenin, Homicide.
  • 21 November – Alexander Babaikin, Homicide [nJ].
  • 1 December – Boris Mityurev, Homicide.

2002[83]

  • 18 January – Svetlana Makarenko, Homicide.
  • 4 March – Konstantin Pogodin, Novoye Delo newspaper, Nizhni Novgorod. Homicide.
  • 8 March – Natalya Skryl, Nashe Vremya newspaper, Taganrog. Homicide [?J].
  • 31 March – Valery Batuyev, Moscow News newspaper, Moscow. Homicide [nJ].
  • 1 April – Sergei Kalinovsky, Moskovskij Komsomolets local edition, Smolensk. Homicide [nJ].
  • 4 April – Vitaly Sakhn-Vald, photojournalist, Kursk. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 25 April – Leonid Shevchenko, Pervoye Chtenie newspaper, Volgograd. Homicide [nJ].
  • 29 April – Valery Ivanov, founder and chief editor of Tolyattinskoye Obozrenie newspaper, Samara Region.[82] Contract killing [J].
  • 20 May – Alexander Plotnikov, Gostiny Dvor newspaper, Tyumen. Homicide.
  • 6 June – Pavel Morozov, Homicide.
  • 25 June – Oleg Sedinko, founder of Novaya Volna TV & Radio Company, Vladivostok. Contract killing, explosive in stairwell [nJ].
  • 20 July – Nikolai Razmolodin, general director of Europroject TV & Radio Company, Ulyanovsk. Homicide.
  • 21 July – Maria Lisichkina Homicide [nJ].
  • 27 July – Sergei Zhabin, press service of the Moscow Region governor. Homicide [nJ].
  • 18 August – Nikolai Vasiliev, Cheboksary city, Chuvashia. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 25 August – Paavo Voutilainen, former chief editor of Karelia magazine, Karelia. Homicide [nJ].
  • 4 September – Leonid Kuznetsov, “Periodicals of Mari-El” publishing house, Yoshkar-Ola.[84] Incident not confirmed [?J].
  • 20 September – Igor Salikov, head of information security at Moskovskij Komsomolets newspaper in Penza. Contract killing [nJ].
  • 26 September – Roderick (Roddy) Scott, Frontline TV Company, Great Britain. Crossfire [J].
  • 2 October – Yelena Popova, Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 19 October – Leonid Plotnikov Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 26 October – Tamara Voinova (Stavropol) and Maxim Mikhailov (Kaliningrad), Dubrovka theatre siege (“Nord Ost” show), Moscow. Terrorist Act [nJ].
  • 21 December – Dmitry Shalayev, Kazan, Tatarstan. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 2003–2005

2003[85]

  • 7 January – Vladimir Sukhomlin, Internet journalist and editor, Serbia.ru, Moscow. Homicide. Off-duty police convicted of his murder. Those behind the contract killing were not convicted[J].
  • 11 January – Yury Tishkov, sports commentator, Moscow. Contract killing [nJ].
  • 21 February – Sergei Verbitsky, publisher BNV newspaper. Chita. Homicide [nJ].
  • 18 April – Dmitry Shvets, TV-21 Northwestern Broadcasting, Murmansk. Deputy director of the independent TV-21 station (Northwestern Broadcasting), he was shot dead outside the TV offices. Shvets’ colleagues said the station had received multiple threats for its reporting on influential local politicians. Contract killing [nJ].
  • 3 July – Yury Shchekochikhin, Novaya gazeta, Moscow. Deputy editor of Novaya gazeta and a Duma deputy since 1993. He died just a few days before his scheduled trip to United States to discuss the results of his journalist investigation with FBI officials. He investigated the Three Whales Corruption Scandal that allegedly involved high-ranking FSB officials. Shchekochikhin died from an acute allergic reaction. There has been much speculation about cause of his death. The investigation into his death has been opened and closed four times. Homicide [J].
  • 4 July – Ali Astamirov, France Presse. Went missing in Nazran [?J].
  • 18 July – Alikhan Guliyev, freelance TV journalist, from Ingushetia. Moscow. Homicide [nJ].
  • 10 August – Martin Kraus, Dagestan. On way to Chechnya. Homicide [nJ].
  • 9 October – Alexei Sidorov, Tolyatinskoye Obozreniye, Togliatti. Second editor-in-chief of this local newspaper to be murdered. Predecessor Valery Ivanov shot in April 2002.[82] Homicide. Supposed killer acquitted [?J].
  • 24 October – Alexei Bakhtin, journalist and businessman, formerly Mariiskaya pravda. Mari El. Homicide [nJ].
  • 30 October – Yury Bugrov, editor of Provincial Telegraph. Balakovo, Saratov Region. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 25 December – Pyotr Babenko, editor of Liskinskaya gazeta. Liski, Voronezh Region. Homicide [nJ].

2004[86]

  • 1 February – Yefim Sukhanov, ATK-Media, Archangelsk. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 23 March – Farit Urazbayev, cameraman, Vladivostok TV/Radio Company, Vladivostok. Incident not Confirmed [nJ].
  • 2 May – Shangysh Mongush, correspondent with Khemchiktin Syldyzy newspaper, Tuva. Homicide [?J].
  • 9 May – Adlan Khasanov, Reuters reporter, died in Grozny bomb attack that killed Chechen President Ahmed Kadyrov. Terrorist Act [J].
  • 9 June – Paul Klebnikov, chief editor of newly established Russian version of Forbes magazine, Moscow. Contract killing, alleged perpetrators put on trial and acquitted. Homicide [J].
  • 1 July – Maxim Maximov, journalist with Gorod newspaper, St Petersburg. Body not found. Homicide [J].
  • 10 July – Zoya Ivanova, TV presenter, Buryatia State Television & Radio Company, Ulan Ude, Buryatia. Homicide [nJ].
  • 17 July – Pail Peloyan, editor of Armyansky Pereulok magazine, Moscow. Homicide [nJ].
  • 3 August – Vladimir Naumov, nationalist reporter, Cossack author (Russky Vestnik, Zavtra), Moscow Region. Homicide [nJ].
  • 24 August – Svetlana Shishkina, journalist, Kazan, Tatarstan. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 24 August – Oleg Belozyorov, Moscow-Volgograd flight. Terrorist Act [nJ].
  • 18 September – Vladimir Pritchin, editor-in-chief of North Baikal TV & Radio Company, Buryatia. Homicide [?J].
  • 27 September – Jan Travinsky (St Petersburg), in Irkutsk as political activist for election campaign.[87] Homicide. Conviction [nJ].

2005[88]

  • 23 May – Pavel Makeyev, reporter for TNT-Pulse Company, Rostov-on-Don. Run down while photographing illegal street racing. Incident not Confirmed [?J].
  • 28 July – Magomed Varisov, political analyst and journalist, shot dead near his home in Makhachkala, Dagestan. He “had received threats, was being followed and had unsuccessfully sought help from the local police” according to Committee to Protect Journalists. Sharia Jamaat claimed responsibility for the murder.[89] Homicide [J].
  • 31 August – Alexander Pitersky, Baltika Radio reporter, Saint Petersburg. Homicide [?J].
  • 3 September – Vladimir Pashutin, Smolensky Literator newspaper, Smolensk. Not Confirmed [nJ].
  • 13 October – Tamirlan Kazikhanov, head of press service for Anti-Terrorist Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs‘s Main Department for the Southern Federal District, Nalchik. Crossfire [J].
  • 4 November – Kira Lezhneva, reporter with Kamensky rabochii newspaper, Sverdlovsk Region.[90] Homicide. Conviction [nJ].

2006–2008[edit]

2006[91]

  • 8 January – Vagif Kochetkov, newly appointed Trud correspondent in the region, killed and robbed in Tula. Acquittal [nJ].
  • 26 February – Ilya Zimin, worked for NTV Russia television channel, killed in Moscow flat. Suspect in Moldova trial. Acquittal [nJ].
  • 4 May – Oksana Teslo, media worker, Moscow Region. Arson attack on dacha. Homicide [nJ].
  • 14 May – Oleg Barabyshkin, director of radio station, Chelyabinsk. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 23 May – Vyacheslav Akatov, special reporter, Business Moscow TV show, murdered in Mytyshchi Moscow Region. Killer caught and convicted. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 25 June – Anton Kretenchuk, cameraman, local Channel 38 TV, killed in Rostov-on-Don. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 25 July – Yevgeny Gerasimenko, journalist with Saratovsky Rasklad newspaper. Murdered in Saratov. Conviction [nJ].
  • 31 July – Anatoly Kozulin, retired freelance journalist. Ukhta, Komi. Homicide [nJ].
  • 8 August – Alexander Petrov, editor-in-chief, Right to Choose magazine Omsk, murdered with family while on holiday in Altai Republic. Under-age murderer charged and prosecuted. Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 17 August – Elina Ersenoyeva, reporter for Chechenskoye obshchestvo newspaper. Abducted in Grozny, Chechnya. Missing [?J].
  • 13 September – Vyacheslav Plotnikov, reporter, local “Channel 41” TV, Voronezh. Incident not Confirmed [nJ].
  • 7 October – Anna Politkovskaya, commentator with Novaya Gazeta, Moscow, shot in her apartment building’s elevator;.[92][93][94][95] Four accused in contract killing, acquitted in February 2009 [J].
  • 16 October – Anatoly Voronin, Itar-TASS news agency, Moscow. Homicide [nJ].
  • 28 December – Vadim Kuznetsov, editor-in-chief of World & Home. Saint Petersburg magazine, killed in Saint Petersburg. Homicide [nJ].

2007[96]

  • 14 January – Yury Shebalkin, retired journalist, formerly with Kaliningradskaya pravda. Homicide in Kaliningrad. Conviction [nJ].
  • 20 January – Konstantin Borovko, presenter of “Gubernia” TV company (Russian: “Губерния”), killed in Khabarovsk.[43] Homicide. Conviction [nJ].
  • 2 March – Ivan Safronov, military columnist of Kommersant newspaper. Died in Moscow, cause of death disputed.[97][98] Incident not Confirmed. Investigation under Incitement to Suicide (Article 110) [?J].
  • 15 March – Leonid Etkind, director at Karyera newspaper. Abduction and homicide in Vodnik, Saratov Region. Conviction [nJ].
  • 5 April – Vyacheslav Ifanov, Novoye televidenie Aleiska, cameraman. Previously attacked by local military. Aleisk, Altai. Incident not Confirmed [?J].
  • April – Marina Pisareva, deputy head of Russian office of German media group Bertelsmann was found dead at her country cottage outside Moscow in April[99][100]

2008

(Putin’s final months as president)

  • 8 February – Yelena Shestakova, former journalist, St Petersburg. Killer sent to psychiatric prison. Homicide [nJ].
  • 21 March – Gadji Abashilov, chief of Dagestan State TV & Radio Company VGTRK, shot in his car in Makhachkala. Homicide [?J].
  • 21 March – Ilyas Shurpayev, Dagestani journalist covering Caucasus on Channel One, was strangled with a belt by robbers in Moscow.[101][102] Alleged killers tracked to Tajikistan and convicted there of his murder. Homicide [?J].

The Medvedev presidency[edit]

2008–2011[edit]

2008[103]

  • 31 August – Magomed Yevloyev, Ingush oppositionist, founder of Ingushetiya.ru, Moscow-based lawyer, shot on return to country while in custody of Ingush police officers.[104][105][106] Killer convicted of negligent homicide, sentence subsequently mitigated. Homicide. Conviction [J].
  • 2 September – Abdulla Alishayev, (aka Telman Alishayev), TV presenter on Muslim channel, shot dead in car, Makhachkala.[107] Homicide [J].

2009[108]

  • 4 January – Shafig Amrakhov, editor of news agency RIA 51, Murmansk, was shot in stairwell entrance from the traumatic pistol on 30 December 2008 and died in hospital.[109] Homicide [nJ].
  • 4 January – Vladislav Zakharchuk, manager of the Arsenyevskie Vesti newspaper in Vladivostok. Died in a fire under suspicious circumstances.[110]
  • 19 January – Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Merkelov, Novaya Gazeta, Moscow. On 19 January Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer for the Novaya gazeta, anti-fascist activist, and opponent of human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot and killed in the centre of Moscow.[111] With him died Anastasia Baburova, a trainee reporter with Novaya Gazeta, and a fellow anti-fascist activist.[112][113] In early November 2009 a man and a woman were arrested for the killing.
  • 30 March – Sergei Protazanov, layout artist with Grazhdanskoye soglasie newspaper, Khimki nr. Moscow. Link to work questioned. Incident not Confirmed [nJ].
  • 29 June – Vyacheslav Yaroshenko, chief editor of Corruption and Criminality newspaper in Volgograd died after a severe head injuries in June. He was allegedly struck in the temple by the unknown assailant, although the local police claims fall from the ladder as the reason for injury.[114]
  • 15 July – Natalia Estemirova,[115] a human rights activist with Memorial, who worked with journalists from Novaya gazeta, especially Anna Politkovskaya, and occasionally published in the newspaper herself, having been a TV reporter pre-1999. After years of investigating murders and kidnapping in Chechnya, Estemirova was herself abducted that morning in Grozny and found shot to death by the roadside several hours later in neighbouring Ingushetia.[116] Homicide [J].
  • 11 August – Malik Akhmedilov,[117] deputy chief editor of the Avar language newspaper Khakikat (Truth), was found shot dead near the Dagestan capital Makhachkala. Homicide [?J].
  • 25 October – Maksharip Aushev was shot dead in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria.[118] When Magomed Yevloyev gave up running Ingushetia.ru, and his replacement (Rosa Malsagova) had to flee abroad to escape threats and harassment, Aushev ran the successor website Ingushetia.org. Link to past or present work unclear. Homicide [?J].
  • 16 November – Olga Kotovskaya, Kaskad radio & TV company, Kaliningrad. Died in a fall from 14th storey-building under suspicious circumstances. Investigation under “Incitement to suicide” (Article 110).[119] [?J].

2010[120]

  • 20 January – Konstantin Popov died from a beating received a fortnight earlier by Russian police in a detoxification centre for the drunk and disorderly.[121] A 26-year-old police sergeant was charged with his killing. Homicide [nJ].
  • 23 February – Journalist Ivan Stepanov was stabbed to death at his dacha.[122] The murderers have been arrested and sentenced to 16 and 18 years of prison.[123]Homicide [nJ].
  • 20 March – Maxim Zuyev was found murdered in a Kaliningrad flat he was renting. Seven years earlier he was interrogated by the city’s police for publishing an anonymous letter alleging corruption among high-ranking police officers in the enclave.[124][125][126][127] The Investigative Committee has marked the case as “crime solved.
  • 5 May – Shamil Aliyev, founder of two radio stations and a director of TV network was shot in his car by two unidentified attackers, who also killed his bodyguard and wounded his driver.[128][129] Homicide [?J]
  • 13 May – Said Magomedov, director of local television station, Sergokalinsky district, Dagestan. Shot dead when travelling with repairmen to restore sabotaged TV transmitter. Terrorist act [J].
  • 25 June – Dmitry Okkert, Moscow. A presenter with the Expert TV channel, Okkert was found stabbed to death in his own apartment. The director of the Expert media holding, Valery Fadeyev, does not believe that the brutal killing of his colleague was linked to his journalistic activities. Homicide [?J].
  • 25 July – Bella Ksalova, Cherkessk. A correspondent for the Caucasian Knot website and news agency, Ksalova died in a hospital after being hit by a car near her home. The driver was sentenced to 3 1/4 years in penal colony.[130]
  • 1 August – Malika Betiyeva, Grozny-Shatoi highway. The deputy chief editor of Molodyozhnaya smena, and Chechnya correspondent of the “Dosh” (Word) magazine, died with four of her immediate family when a speeding jeep crashed into her car.[131]
  • 11 August – Magomed Sultanmagomedov, Makhachkala. The director of the Makhachkala TV station died in the hospital after his car was shot at from another vehicle. This was preceded by an attempted bombing on 18 November 2008.[132] [J]
  • 23 October – Yevgeny Fedotov died in a hospital due to the head injuries received in a violent quarrel with his neighbour. The latter has been charged for manslaughter.[133]

2011

  • 15 December – Gadzhimurat Kamalov, Makhachkala. Investigative reporter – shot 6 times in a drive-by outside his newspaper’s offices.[134][135]

Under Putin[edit]

2012[edit]

2013[edit]

  • 9 July – Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, deputy editor of the Novoe Delo was killed (after numerous death threats and previous assassination attempt in January 2013[138]) by several gunshots while he was driving just 50 metres from his house on the outskirts of provincial capital Makhachkala.[139][140][141]

2014[edit]

  • 1 August – Journalist and human rights activist Timur Kuashev was abducted from his home and later found dead in Kabardino-Balkaria.[142] Kuashev was previously stopped by local police a number of times and received death threats.[143]

2016[edit]

  • March 31 – Journalist Dmitry Tsilikin was stabbed to death in his flat in Saint Petersburg.[144] The suspected killer is neo-nazi Sergey Kosyrev. The murder is attributed to Tsilikin’s homosexual orientation.[145]

2017[edit]

  • March 17 – Yevgeny Khamaganov died of unexplained causes in Ulan-Ude. Khamaganov was known for writing articles that criticized the federal government and was allegedly beaten by unknown assailants on March 10.[146]

 

 

‘With Such a People You Can Then Do What You Please’

.. The standard presidential complaint boils down to: “Sure, we need a free press. I just want it to be ‘fairer’ to me.”

.. Donald Trump accepts the existence of the formal and informal institutional structure that constitutes American democracy only as long as that suits his purposes, and disdains or directly attacks it when it gets in his way.

.. It’s fair to disclose that in the pre-Trump era I disagreed with Stephens’s views pretty much across the board on international and domestic policy. He was for the Iraq war and against the Iran nuclear deal; my views were the reverse.

.. Stephens extends the argument to one of the traits that most strikingly distinguishes Trump from most other politicians: that he does not care if he is shown to be telling obvious, easily disprovable lies.

.. the unsettling novelty of Trump is that he tells lies when they’re not useful, he tells lies when he knows they can be disproven, he lies and shows less remorse than a lizard when the lie is exposed.

 .. the entirety of the liberal-governing experiment of the past four centuries involves checks on what you can get away with. Doing what you can get away with is the governing ethic of the tribe, of the feudal lord, of today’s autocrats. It’s the ethic of Tony Soprano
.. but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions
.. Of the institutions that might check him:
  • The most basic is elections, but Trump famously said during the campaign that he would “accept” the results—“if I win.” Since then he has of course repeated his false claim that his popular vote loss was rigged by illegal voting, and that his electoral-college win was very large rather than historically small. Imagine Trump on the losing side of a Bush v. Gore-style decision, or even in Hillary Clinton’s position now, as the clear winner of the popular vote but the loser of the office.

.. Instinctively by Trump, perhaps strategically by Bannon and others, the Trump moment has promoted the idea that there are no facts, no reality, no authorities, no actual truth. There’s only us and them.

.. It is no coincidence that reporters who have dealt with state-news systems in autocratic Russia (like David Remnick or Masha Gessen) or China (where I have lived) are more much concerned by Trump than amused.

.. The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows.

And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.