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Reporters Leave Chechnya, Danger High - But Stay in Ingushetia

by sara star | August 17, 2009 at 07:14 pm

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Lack of security and lack of information are forcing Novaya Gazeta journalists to leave Chechnya.

It is difficult to understand what is going on there. Some blame the president, others say rebels are trying to discredit him.

Also, this last month, a new video on Missing Women in Chechnya has surfaced. An estimate of 5000 women are missing or more; some kidnapped, some murdered.

Mikhail Gorbachev, who is working to make a comeback under the polical party Independent Democratic Party of Russia, is part owner of Novaya Gazetta.

Last week, Novaya Gazeta announced that it was withdrawing all reporters from Chechnya because of a lack of security. Memorial is continuing its work in the region through offices outside Chechnya.

Memorial said its workers in Chechnya have received death threats and unknown people were following at least three of them in July. Among them were Natalya Estemirova, who was abducted on a Grozny street and killed on July 15, and Akhmed Gisayev, who was investigating an abduction case involving federal forces, Memorial activist Alexander Cherkasov said.

Last week, two activists with the Chechen-based children’s charity Save the Generation were found dead in the trunk of their car in Chechnya.

“Chechnya is turning into a closed region like Turkmenistan,” Lokshina said, cautioning that this would hurt the image and security of the entire country.

Ingushetia has seen a series of attacks on government targets, including the suicide bombing of a Nazran police station that killed at least 20 people Monday. But human rights and reporters are staying there.

Silayev said Chechnya was becoming more and more closed to the rest of the world and that it was increasingly difficult to understand what was going on there because of a lack of information.

Source: themoscowtimes.com

In September 2008 Gorbachev announced he is going to make a comeback to the Russian politics along with a former KGB officer, Alexander Lebedev. Their party is known as the Independent Democratic Party of Russia. He also is part owner of the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

On 20 March 2009, Gorbachev met with United States President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in efforts to "reset" strained relations between Russia and the United States.