Stanislav Markelov, a leading human rights lawyer, and reporter Anastasia Baburova have been assassinated in Moscow — the latest fatalities of critics of the government. This assassination was done with a silencer on a public street just a half of a mile from the Kremlin — as if meant to send a message to other lawyers, reporters, and civil libertarians.
Markelov has been leading calls against the early release of Yuri Budanov, the former Russian colonel whose imprisonment for killing an 18-year-old Chechen woman has been a national controversy.
Svetlana Gannushkina, a lawyer with Moscow’s Civic Assistance organization and a colleague of Markelov, warned that the assassination was meant to send a message: “Anybody can be killed like this, in broad daylight, in the center of town. I think the plan was not only to kill a particular person but also to terrify the rest of society.”
For the full story, click here.
He was fighting to keep the man who killed an 18-year old woman. I hope the security cameras have the killer on tape, but, from the story, I’m not sure it will matter. The photo at the LA Times was disturbing. I am so sorry about this.
Palin must have seen something, or someone…