Commemoration rally of Anna Politkovskaya, assassinated journalist of "Novaya Gazeta". Moscow, Chistoprudny Boulevard, October 7, 2009. Photo by the "Caucasian Knot"

09 October 2009, 20:10

Solution Anna Politkovskaya's murder depends on the will of Russian authorities, her daughter believes

The family of Anna Politkovskaya, who perished three years ago, is gradually losing hope that the whole chain of criminals involved in the journalist's murder will ever be revealed and the culprits will ever be punished. This was stated by Vera Politkovskaya, Anna's daughter. In her opinion, "the political will of country leaders can be the key factor in this context."

"Three years have passed. And look how all this time inspectors were doing their 'snow job', sorry for using such words: 'Now everything goes quickly, you are good guys, you help us, all goes perfectly well, just some time more - and we'll catch all of them.' Three years have passed, and what - were they found?" Vera Politkovskaya, Anna's daughter and journalist of the RIA "Novosti", asked rhetorically on air of the program "Press Hour" on Radio Liberty.

According to her story, the persons, who were tried and got to prisoner's dock, were involved in the murder of the observer of the "Novaya Gazeta". "But we say that their guilt wasn't proved in order to have them tried honestly, instead of just saying: here you are, guys, they are, certainly, not the main culprits, but, please, get satisfied with what you have. Should there have been the political will, the investigation would surely have never made the mistakes it really did," Ms Politkovskaya said.

At the same time, in the opinion of Alexander Grant, observer of the "Davidzon Radio" (USA), "political will as the means to press the inquiry of a crime is something generally impossible." "Inspectors should do their work, and politicians should do their business. But what happens in this remarkable country named Russia? Three years after the terrible crime, the murder, you know less about it than three years ago. It's a paradox! And it's a tragedy," said Mr Grant.

"It seems to me that the incumbent President is personally highly interested in solving the crime, much more than the previous one, who now temporarily works as Prime Minister," said, in his turn, Andrei Lipskiy, deputy editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta". "However, the point is that when we look at the stand of the authorities in this situation, we can't resort to these two figures."

Mr Lipskiy believes that power agencies, "which are completely, so to say, deep up to the ears, in this case, have their own interests." "And we saw how their interests were realized, when leakages of information were organized. Under the gentlemen's agreement between 'Novaya Gazeta' and the investigation to speak out nothing in excess, not to hamper the inquiry, suddenly certain surnames, certain versions ' bobbed up' in authority-friendly papers," said the journalist.

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