Ilya Zimin

As Russia assumed a world leadership role, chairing the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations and the Council of Europe’s powerful committee of ministers, the Kremlin cracked down on dissent and shrugged off astounding attacks on critics and journalists. In a grim year for the press, parliament passed a measure to hush media criticism by calling it “extremism,” and an assassin silenced Anna Politkovskaya, the internationally known reporter who exposed government abuses in Chechnya.

New York, July 28, 2006—The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a resolution condemning the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov, U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Hillary Clinton announced this week. The resolution calls on Russia’s government to aggressively pursue the murder investigation and accept a U.S. offer for assistance, Clinton and Brownback said in a statement.

The resolution, which was introduced by the two lawmakers, comes roughly three months after the Moscow City Court acquitted two ethnic Chechens—Musa Vakhayev and Kazbek Dukuzov—in Klebnikov’s killing on May 5. The jury trial, which was sealed to the public and the media, was repeatedly criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists for its lack of transparency. Moscow prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin said “serious violations” of criminal procedure led to the acquittals.

New York, February 28, 2006—A laptop computer and cell phone were stolen from the Moscow apartment of slain NTV correspondent Ilya Zimin, and a bloody fingerprint belonging to someone other than the victim was found on a light switch, local news outlets reported today.

Authorities continued to say that the weekend killing was probably not related to Zimin's work at NTV. The 33-year-old reporter's heavily beaten body was found on Monday, and authorities believe he was killed the day before. Moscow prosecutor Anatoly Zuyev said the murder was most likely a common crime resulting from an argument. He said there was no sign of forced entry, suggesting that Zimin knew his assailant, according to press reports.

New York, February 27, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a thorough investigation into the killing of Ilya Zimin, a 33-year-old correspondent for the national television station NTV, who was found murdered in his Moscow apartment.

Several of Zimin's colleagues from NTV—which is owned by the state oil giant Gazprom—went to his apartment today after he failed to show up for work or answer his phone, according to local press reports. They found his heavily beaten corpse lying face down in a pool of blood and much of the furniture overturned in what appeared to be a sign of a violent struggle, according to local and international press reports.