Nice Newspaper You Got There, Squire
It would be a shame if anything happened to it. It would almost be funny if people weren't dying. The Russian government is looking more and more like a mutant mafia on steroids every day. Yet another Russian journalist has died. This time in a fall from a 5th floor window. The government is trying to say it was suicide.
A military correspondent for Russia's top business daily has died after falling out of a window, and some media alleged Monday that he might have been killed for his critical reporting.
Ivan Safronov, the military affairs writer for Kommersant, died Friday after falling from a fifth-story window in the stairwell of his apartment building in Moscow, officials said. His body was found by neighbors shortly after the fall.
With prosecutors investigating the death, Kommersant and some other media suggested foul play.
"The suicide theory has become dominant in the investigation, but all those who knew Ivan Safronov categorically reject it," Kommersant said in an article Monday.
Safronov's colleagues and relatives have described him as a strong, cheerful person who would be extremely unlikely to kill himself.
The Moscow city prosecutor's office did not respond to repeated calls for comment about the investigation into his death, and neighborhood prosecutors could not immediately be reached.
In a report that may have been aimed to quash speculation of foul play, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified law enforcement source as saying investigators had "not even any minimal information" pointing to the possibility of murder.
It is simply not safe for journalists in Russia if they say anything against the government. That, folks, is real repression. Again. There used to be a joke told in Russia in the days of the Soviets. "What did the dissident say just before he committed suicide? Don't shoot, comrade." It looks like the bad old days are back, only worse.
World news | Gaius Tuesday, 6 March , 2007
By syn, Tuesday, 6 March , 2007 @ 5:53 pm
When I lived in Moscow, Russia in 1991 (my ex’s family took controlling interest in the newspaper Pravda) there was contracted killings occuring on a daily basis and openly on the streets of American businessmen. I learned very quickly not to say anything to anyone or speak on a telephone.
Most Americans living in America have no idea just how protected are there lives living in this country nor do they have a slightest clue just how ruthless are so many countries worldwide.