Russia
Who killed Politkovskaya?
The case against those accused of killing Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow apartment in October 2006 collapsed this Thursday as the jury aquitted all three suspects. One day later the presiding judge, Yevgeni Zubo, ordered the Russian Investigative Committee reopen the case, “The fact that no one at all has been held accountable […]
Surviving a Kidnapping in Chechnya
In 1997, Camilla Carr and Jonathan James were kidnapped and held for fourteen months in Chechnya. Speaking neither Russian nor Chechen, armed with good intentions and a car full of toys, the two Britons had volunteered to help traumatised children in Grozny. They were soon kidnapped, and this book – The Sky is Always There: […]
Stalin’s children
I have read many sagas of Russian families, but Stalin’s Children: Three Generations of Love and War by Owen Matthews has facets that make it poignant. It is both tragedy and love story by a distinguished chronicler of the East. Matthews has covered Moscow for Newsweek since 1997 and has witnessed the Chechen, Bosnian and […]
Guns for Russian reporters
Alexander Lebedev, co-owner of Russia’s Novaya Gazeta newspaper, has requested the Federal Security Service (FSB) issue firearms to journalists at the paper. The highly unusual request comes after Anastasia Baburova, a 25 years old journalist with the Gazeta, was murdered earlier this week. The paper previously employed Anna Politkovskaya who was also gunned down in […]
Anastasia Baburova shot dead in Moscow
Anastasia Baburova was shot dead in Moscow in broad daylight today along with Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Baburova was killed as she tried to intervene when Markelov was attacked. The freelance journalist in her mid-20’s worked for Novaya Gazeta newspaper, the same newspaper as Anna Politkovskaya who was also shot dead in Moscow […]
Politkovskaya suspect offered to surrender
Rustam Makhmudov, the main suspect in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya outside her Moscow apartment building in 2006, offered to turn himself in six months ago according to a lawyer for the suspect’s brother, Six months ago, Makhmudov passed a message through his relatives from an undisclosed location that he would turn himself in if […]
Politkovskaya trial opens Monday
The trial into the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 opens in a Russian military court on Monday. The family of the slain journalist have long campaigned for an open trial, but that looks unlikely, “We will demand that the trial be open. My mother was a journalist and I think it’s impossible […]
Scott Taylor on reporting from the Caucasus
Canadian war reporter Scott Taylor talks about getting into the Caucasus to report on the South Ossetian conflict. The editor of Canadian military magazine Esprit de Corps found the situation on the ground far from straightforward, Before setting out from Stavropol, I had been assured by the Russian authorities that we would have no problems […]
The other war in the Caucasus
I’ll second Mathew Collin’s sentiments about this BBC World Service report called the PR battle for the Caucasus. It’s a fascinating 23 minute listen, The South Ossetian conflict, which began in early August this year, not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. It even made the front-page of […]
Dutch journalist killed by cluster bomb
[video:youtube:B-epO3SDVYg] A Dutch government investigation has found that a Russian cluster bomb killed a television cameraman in Georgia in August, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. Russia denied using cluster munitions during its brief war with Georgia in August, but human rights groups say both sides unleashed the widely denounced weapons. link We previously linked to […]
BBC turned back by militia in South Ossetia
The BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and the TV crew he was travelling with were turned back by armed militia men as they attempted to enter South Ossetia. Click the image above to watch the footage.
Arkady Babchenko on South Ossetia
Arkady Babchenko, military correspondent for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and author of One Soldier’s War, took some of the most graphic and memorable footage from the recent war in South Ossetia. He talked to the German publication Neuer Zürcher Zeitung about the assignment. Sign and Sight translate the interview which covers Arkady’s thoughts on […]
Marcus Bleadale in Georgia and beyond
Marcus Bleasdale is a bit of a regular in these parts and it seems the Oslo-based photojournalist has been busy of late. The above frame is taken from a recent commission in Georgia. Beyond all out war, Marcus has also visited Venezuala and the USA. There are some great pictures (as usual) in all these […]
Georgia in motion
Now that’s how to do a multimedia presentation and get inside the workings of a photojournalist on the road all through images and emails. A Georgian Diary by Thomas Dworzak for Magnum in Motion is excellent, The Russians invaded Georgia on August 8th, while George W. Bush was in Beijing attending the Olympics. Twenty days […]
Russian TV journalist Abdulla Alishayev shot dead
Abdulla Alishayev, a journalist from the republic of Daghestan died today after being attacked by gunmen on Tuesday. Alishayev worked as the anchor to a popular religious programme Peace to Your Home. He was attacked in his car in the village of Separatorny near Daghestan’s capital, Makhachkala. An official said he died in hospital. Earlier […]
Russo-Georgia Conflict: a collection of links
I’ve been taking a break from blogging recently but I’m hoping to get going again now September is here and those not-so-balmy August days are behind us. If you’ve been following the conflict and ongoing confrontation between Russia and Georgia, you might be interested in my delicious links on the topic. (Delicious is a social […]
Fund for relatives of journalists killed in South Ossetia
The response to the campaign for funds to help the relatives of two reporters killed in the recent conflict in South Ossetia has been impressive according to Journalism.co.uk. As we blogged at the time, Alexander Klimchuk and Giga Chikhladze were killed in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Journalism.co.uk talks to Mark Pinder, a friend of […]
Russian website founder Magomed Yevloyev shot dead
Magomed Yevloyev, the founder of the Ingushetiya website was arrested at gunpoint in Narzan as he stepped off a plane. He was taken into a police car where “an incident” took place… “resulting in a shooting injury to the head and he later died in hospital,” Interfax reported, A source at Ingush police said the […]
Anna Politkovskaya remembered
[video:google:-1006358898865632661&ei] Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya would have celebrated her 50th birthday today had she not been gunned down in Moscow in October 2006. Russian human rights groups intend to gather in central Moscow today to remember her, “On August 30, on the day of Anna Politkovskaya’s birthday, we want to honor her memory and again […]
A look back at South Ossetia
Global Voices point us to Live Journal user photomans with photographs from Tskhinvali and a refugee camp in Vladikavkaz. They’re from mid-August, but have not been circulated throughout western media as far as I can tell. There are the, by now, familiar appeals from journalists who know no other way of contacting bloggers in the […]
Yuri Kozyrev in South Ossetia
TIME photographer Yuri Kozyrev rides with Russian troops through Georgia and the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Meanwhile, Leli Blagonravova, a Georgian photojournalist, who was in Gori when the Russians first attacked on August 8-9 delivers a personal account on France 24’s Observers site. The Frontline Club‘s very own Kim Sengupta reports on Georgian claims […]
Blogs ‘fail’ in coverage of Russo-Georgia War
Joshua Foust argues that blogs have not lived up to expectations in covering the Russo-Georgia War. He homes in on what he describes as ‘large blogs’- the Small War Journal, Instapundit, the Washington Monthly etc. He’s disappointed that they seem to have relied on the same set of sources as the mainstream media: Soon after […]
Alexander Klimchuk laid to rest
[video:youtube:7-o8qgZY1MQ] Alexander Klimchuk was killed in Tskhinvali, the capital of the embattled region of South Ossetia nearly two weeks ago. Russian Today reports from his funeral in the video above. He was found dead in the streets of the South Ossetian capital along with another Georgian reporter, Grigol Chikhladze. Alexander headed up the photographic agency […]
Three killed, dozens injured and arrested
Reporters Without Borders catalogues the deaths and injuries to journalists in Georgia since the war began less than two weeks ago. Turkish cameraman Levent Öztürk working for the NTV station was severely injured in attack which he and his colleagues caught on video, “When I was hit, my eye went and I knew something bad […]
Crossing the frontline
[video:youtube:wmGl5FACJ2o] This dramatic footage purports to show journalists crossing the frontline in Georgia because… well, it doesn’t look as if there is anywhere else to go.
Reporters under fire
[video:youtube:So07TMHRJ7E] CNN reports on the recent spate of journalist shootings and deaths in South Ossetia and Georgia.
In the 21st century…
Two great clips via Mohamed Nanabhay, Head of New Media at the AlJazeera Network. All about Georgia, Iraq, politics, the west and ‘stuff’… say no more. Just go over and take a peek.
FOX news reporters shot at in Gori
[video:youtube:UQXUW_ks8ls] FOX News reporter Steve Harrigan says he and a group of journalists were shot at in the Georgian town of Gori by “irregular, undisciplined, angry” Georgian forces with pistols. However, this appears to have happened at the same location we previously posted and both EuroNews and The Guardian reported the incident saying the man […]
Impossible to verify 2,000 dead
From the BBC Editors blog Jon Williams, BBC World News Editor, offers an interesting perspective on how easy it is for big media to get access to powerful people who want a soapbox, but how difficult it is to verify basic facts, For the BBC to have access to someone so influential [as Georgian President […]
Arkady Babchenko in Georgia
Arkady Babchenko’s photographs of the war in Georgia and South Ossetia are more graphic than you’ll find in the British press. Arkady is an ex-Russian soldier turned author who served in Chechnya. He works as a journalist with Novaya Gazeta – the same newspaper that Anna Politkovskaya wrote for before she was murdered. We’ve featured […]