This month Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow and she is not the only regime-critical journalist in Russia that has been killed during the last years - and the murderers were hardly ever found. The Moscow Union of Journalists said “the murder of Anna Politkovskaya is a new attack on democracy, freedom of speech and openness in Russia” *. But Ex-Chancellor Schroeder who is busy promoting his memoirs still believes Putin to be a “crystal clear democrat” **. State of denial?
* Mail & Guardian online, 12 October 2006, “No Kremlin tears for journalist” by Tom Parfitt
** WELT am Sonntag, 22.10.2006, “Die Medienkampagne für das Schröder-Buch” von Margaret Heckel