Editor, the Gauntlet,
[“Russia’s media massacre,” Tyler Wolfe, Nov. 27, Gauntlet]
As one of many millions of Russians who had learned about Mrs. Politkovskaya’s work only after she had been murdered, I was quite shocked by the absurdity of accusations against Russia’s democratically elected leaders and the whole flood of anti-Russian propaganda that emerged after this tragic case. It is too easy to see that the murder has damaged the reputation of the Russian state and that of its current leadership to an incomparably higher degree than all of Mrs. Politkovskaya’s critical publications ever could. This makes me wonder, in accordance with the ancient principle of cui prodest, whether the real motive for the murder was to silence a journalist or to undermine the reputation of Russia and its leadership. If the latter is true, I don’t doubt that those who ordered the crime will never be tried, because they are obviously too far away from the reach of the Russian justice.