Chechens arrested in slaying of American
MOSCOW – After an 11-week investigation, authorities on Tuesday announced their first break in the murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov with the arrests of two Chechen men in Moscow.
Moscow police said the men were involved in the July 9 killing of Klebnikov, the editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition. The men allegedly kidnapped another person before Klebnikov was shot outside his Moscow office, the Interfax News Agency reported.
The high-profile killing ignited a welter of conspiracy theories pointing in a variety of directions, from Chechen separatists to Russia’s wealthiest tycoons. The 41-year-old journalist, an American of Russian descent, was known as a relentless investigative reporter who’d stepped on more than a few toes. His murder renewed concerns about the safety of journalists in Russia.
The arrests constituted the first substantive development in the case. Still, it was unclear if the suspects are the accused triggermen or are more peripherally connected to the slaying.
Moscow Police Chief Vladimir Pronin disclosed the detentions while attending a municipal conference at the mayor’s office, according to NTV Television. Pronin told a reporter that one of the men had a gun that may have been linked to the slaying. Police seized three guns, Interfax reported.
Authorities didn’t release the men’s names, their ages or other details about their background or the murder investigation.
Klebnikov was shot four times from a passing car outside his office in northern Moscow. He told a colleague, who rushed outside to help, that he didn’t recognize the gunman and didn’t know who ordered the attack. He died shortly after arriving at a hospital.
Responding to news of the arrests, Forbes CEO and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes said, “We are encouraged by the reported breakthrough in Paul’s case by the Russian authorities. We are looking forward to learning more as the investigation continues.”
The suspected involvement of Chechens fortified initial speculation that Klebnikov may have been killed because of his digging into the shadowy world of criminals and militants in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
Ruslan Gorevoy of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a Moscow-based press advocacy group, said Tuesday that a team of three reporters began investigating shortly after Klebnikov’s death and uncovered tentative evidence that the journalist apparently had antagonized two Moscow businessmen: a Chechen arms merchant and a former officer in the Russian security forces.
Both had made threats to Klebnikov if he continued to look into their affairs, Gorevoy said. But he said the investigative team didn’t have enough evidence to report its findings.
Several major Russian newspapers speculated that Chechen separatists may have been involved, pointing to a book by Klebnikov based on 15 hours of interviews with former separatist commander Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev. “Conversations With a Barbarian” detailed Nukhayev’s military exploits in Chechnya. The Russian news media have linked Nukhayev to Chechen criminal groups that began flourishing in Moscow in the years shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Klebnikov also had confronted one of Russia’s most powerful tycoons, now-exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky, describing him in print as a “gangland boss” who ordered the 1995 murder of television journalist Vladislav Listyev. Berezovsky sued for libel, but agreed to withdraw the suit after Forbes acknowledged there was no link between him and the killing.
Klebnikov detailed Berezovksy’s once-extensive influence at the Kremlin in a book titled “Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia.”
Russia is one of the 10 most dangerous countries for journalists, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists. Scores of them have been killed in Chechnya, and others have been targeted in mob-style hits.