Stanislav Markelov And Anastasia Baburova Murdered
Posted on January 22, 2009
Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova were murdered in Moscow on Monday,
after a press conference at which Markelov discussed his plans for opposing and investigating the early parole of Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was convicted in 2003 of the murder of a young Chechen woman, Elza Kungayeva, and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Although, given the recent events surrounding the parole of the war criminal Budanov, the foreign and Russian press will inevitably focus on this connection, Markelov was a hero of the Russian social movements for his work on behalf of anti-fascists, migrant workers, union activists, and others. His murder clearly has to be seen in the context of the recent string of attacks on activists in these movements, which has received little coverage in the west and little more in Russia itself.
The murders mark another step in Russia’s descent into barbarism, as the Russian nationalism of last century — Stalinist ’socialism in one country’ — has metastasised into something infinitely uglier and more dangerous. More to follow …
