Yevgeny Gerasimenko

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.

August 2, 2006
Posted August 2, 2006

Original Alerts:
July 26, 2006
July 31, 2006

New York, July 31, 2006—Authorities in the southern city of Saratov arrested a 39-year-old homeless man on Sunday in the slaying of Yevgeny Gerasimenko, a correspondent for the independent weekly Saratovsky Rasklad whose body was found strangled in his apartment on July 26, local press reports said.

The Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD), which is handling the investigation, did not identify the suspect by name but said the case has been “solved.” The Committee to Protect Journalists today expressed skepticism about the disposition of the case, noting that important questions are unanswered.

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, July 26, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the murder of Yevgeny Gerasimenko, a correspondent for the independent weekly Saratovsky Rasklad, who was found dead this morning in his apartment in Saratov in southeastern Russia, according to local press reports.