Anna Politkovskaya

Anna Politkovskaya in conversation with Jonathan Steele

Anna Politkovskaya was in conversation with Jonathan Steele, Senior Foreign Editor of the Guardian recently, to discuss her new book Putin’s Russia, the first title to be supported by English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme.  The event took place at the Frontline Club (in collaboration with whom the event was arranged), and saw a sell-out crowd eager to listen to the views of one of Russia’s leading journalists.

 

Steele began by asking Politkovskaya what the reception of the book had been in Russia.  Politkovskaya explained that the book was not published in Russian, and that the book’s subject matter [a critical appraisal of the Russia that has emerged under Putin's leadership] meant that it was unlikely to ever find a publisher in Russia.  In fact, the English edition (published by Harvill), is currently the only edition available in the world, although rights have now been sold into eight ...

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Anna Politkovskaya, special correspondent for the Russian twice-weekly newspaper Novaya Gazeta, published in Moscow.  She received her Diploma in Journalism from Moscow State University in 1980, and has since worked on a number of newspapers as a correspondent and editor.  She has a particular interest in Chechnya, and has written extensively on the subject, including the book A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (Harvill, 2001).  She acted as a mediator in the Nord-Ost theatre siege in Moscow in 2002, and has been the recipient of numerous international honors, including:  

• First Prize of the Lettre Ulysses Award (2003)
• Hermann-Kesten Medal, PEN Germany (2003)
• Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation (2002)
• Most Courageous Defence of Free Expression from Index on Censorship (2002)
• Special Award of Amnesty International (2001)

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Disquiet On The Chechen Front

Anna Politkovskaya, a correspondent for the Moscow biweekly Novaya Gazeta, was in Los Angeles last October, picking out her dress for a media awards ceremony, when some staggering news came from Moscow: Chechen terrorists were holding 850 hostages in a theater. The Russian authorities tried to send in negotiators, but the Chechens refused to see most of them. They asked for Politkovskaya.

And so Politkovskaya rushed back to cover yet another episode of one of the world's nastiest and longest wars, which this time had shifted to Moscow. The terrorists, she says, "wanted someone who would accurately report things as they were. My work in Chechnya makes people there feel that I don't lie. But there wasn't much I could do for the hostages anyway." She carried water and fruit juice to them, and reported their dejection and feelings of ...

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The 'Sons' Rise In Chechnya
Date: November 3, 2002
Source: The Washington Post
By Anna Politkovskaya
MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- Abubakar lifts the black mask covering his face. We are staring, examining each other at close quarters. We are both trying to understand what's going to happen when this, yet another Russian tragedy, is over. Abubakar, a 29-year-old Chechen, looks 40. He is deputy commander of the terrorist group that has taken several hundred people hostage. I am a journalist who has come to the captured theater building to negotiate. And now I am trying to understand who these people are. Will it be possible to persuade them to compromise if their lives are spared? Will they let all those unhappy people go? Who is behind them? And, more important, what comes after them?
We don't want anything, says Abubakar sharply; we do not intend to survive. We don't need it. We have come to die. ...
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Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya to Help in Hostage Negotiations in Moscow

Los Angeles, California, October 24, 2002 -- Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist with the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta who was scheduled to receive a Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation during ceremonies in Los Angeles tonight, has flown home to help in negotiations with Chechen rebels who are holding up to 700 people hostage in a Moscow theater.
Politkovskaya received word late on October 23 that the rebels had asked her to participate in negotiations. She left Los Angeles on the early morning of October 24. The following message was read by John Puerner, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, during the awards ceremonies.
Message from Anna Politkovskaya, IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards, Los Angeles, California, October 24, 2002:
October 24, 2002; Los Angeles, 4:10 a.m
“Dear friends! I want to thank you once again. It is a great ...
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A WAR WITHOUT HEROES
“A nation where the number of heroes is regarded restricted information meant only for those officials who give out awards while real heroes get no awards at all is powerless indeed. It will lose all its wars, because it is always in the wrong place and on the wrong side”.

It’s difficult to argue with these bitter words of Anna Politkovskaya, especially since the author of these lines was as unsuccessful in his attempts to reach the Department (or the entire Directorate now, which is unbelievable!) for State Awards attached to the president’s administration. My attempts to talk to their long–time and elusive boss, Nina Sivova, at least by phone, failed too (she was on a sick leave… on a business trip… meeting with her superiors… caught a cold…). And why did I need her? Just to find out how many people had received awards for the previous ...
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Children of Chechen "Spetzoperations"
by Anna Politkovskaya
Novaya Gazeta
May 19 2002
Do you still think you should be supporting the war in Chechnya because of some aim that's being pursued, so things wouldn't get worse? We have reached a stage in Russia now, where every schoolchild knows that Chechnya is being "cleaned", and adults no longer bother with the inverted commas.
"Zachistka" in this sense entails thoroughly sorting out someone or something and, on the whole, we prefer not to enquire too closely into who or what. For this meaning of this old word we have the war in Chechnya to thank, and more particularly the high-ranking military brass who routinely update us on television with the latest news from Russia's Chechen ghetto, popularly known as the "Zone of Anti- Terrorist Operations".
It is March 2002 and the thirtieth month of the second Chechen war. "Zachistka", if we are to believe ...
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