Europe & Central Asia

Moscow, July 8, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists today called on President Vladimir Putin to end a deplorable era of impunity for the murder of journalists during his five-year tenure.

"We are calling on President Putin to ensure that the Prosecutor-General's Office makes greater progress in solving these brutal murders," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper, who led the four-member delegation to Moscow. "These murders have sown fear and self-censorship among independent media. Russia's democratic development and international image will remain tarnished until the police and prosecutors do more to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these killings."

New York, July 6, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by an attack against Nikolai Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk's independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, who was beaten by two unidentified assailants on June 28.

Kochurov remained hospitalized today with head and arm injuries after being struck with a heavy object by assailants who were waiting in the entry to his apartment building as the journalist left for work that morning, according to several local news reports. Police in Severodvinsk, a city in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia, opened a criminal case but did not immediately identify suspects.

New York, July 5, 2005—A district court in Minsk has handed down judgments against the opposition daily Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will) in three separate civil defamation trials and ordered the daily to pay a total of 115 million Belarusian rubles (US$53,500) in damages, according to local and international reports.

Narodnaya Volya staff told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the damages may bankrupt the Minsk newspaper, one of the few non-governmental dailies in Belarus.

New York, June 30, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder late Tuesday of Magomedzagid Varisov, a prominent journalist and political analyst, who was gunned down in a contract-style assassination in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan.

JUNE 28, 2005
Posted: July 1, 2005

Magomedzagid Varisov, Novoye Delo
KILLED—CONFIRMED

Machine-gun toting assailants opened fire on Varisov's sedan at around 9 p.m. as he was returning home with his wife and driver. Varisov sustained multiple bullet wounds and died at the scene. His wife was not injured; the driver was hospitalized with injuries, according to local press reports.

JUNE 28, 2005
Posted: July 7, 2005

Nikolai Kochurov, Severodvinsky Rabochy
ATTACKED

Kochurov, editor-in-chief of Severodvinsk's independent newspaper, Severodvinsky Rabochy, was beaten by two unidentified assailants and hospitalized with head and arm injuries. Assailants waiting in the entry to Kochurov's apartment building struck him with a heavy object as the journalist left for work that morning, according to several local news reports. Police in Severodvinsk, a city in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia, opened a criminal case but did not immediately identify suspects.

New York, June 28, 2005--Police in the northwestern Russian city of St. Petersburg consider three senior police investigators to be suspects in the June 2004 disappearance of local reporter Maksim Maksimov, according to local press reports. Police now believe the journalist was murdered for his work, those reports said.

Maksimov, 41, an investigative reporter for the St. Petersburg weekly magazine Gorod (City), was last seen on June 29, 2004, when he went to meet with a source in the city's downtown district, the business daily Kommersant said. A month later, police located the journalist's car parked near a local hotel.

New York, June 24, 2005—An arbitration court in the southern Russian city of Saratov convicted Eduard Abrosimov, a journalist and adviser to former regional governor Dmitry Ayatskov, of criminal defamation on Wednesday and sentenced him to seven months in a prison colony for defaming public officials in two articles published last year in national and local newspapers, according to local press reports.

Dear Prime Minister Kostunica:

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply dismayed by the Serbian Interior Ministry's failure to promptly respond to a credible death threat made against Grujica Spasovic, editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based independent daily Danas (Today). An anonymous telephone threat was made to the newspaper on June 11 after Danas reported that your government has identified the town where indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic is hiding. We call on you to ensure that the threat is thoroughly investigated and that appropriate protection is provided to Spasovic.