Six years have passed since Anna Politkovskaya was killed. Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide should take the opportunity to speak Putin opposite.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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Indictment. Sunday 7. October, Vladimir Putin will celebrate 60 years.
Russia's powerful president for the past five months, and Prime Minister from 2008 to 7. May of this year, will naturally celebrate the day. For nearly 13 years, Putin has held power in the world's largest country, geographically.
But there is also something else that happens on Sunday: It is exactly six years since his leading critic was shot and killed outside the Moscow apartment: Journalist, commentator and author Anna Politkovskaya (1958 – 2006) was murdered on Putin's birthday. Random? Hardly, many believe.
On Sunday, Putin can celebrate for the first time a round birthday on Politkovskaya's death. 60 years since Putin's birth, 6 years since the death of his critic. Must believe how he will try to humiliate her memory this time.
In Ny Tid, we ourselves had the honor of having regular contact with Politkovskaya from February 2006. She then wrote exclusive reports from Putin's Russia. New Time, in which busy Orientering, was the only newspaper outside Russia where she wrote. Yes, at times the only newspaper where she expressed that she could write completely freely and honestly. For even in independent Novaja Gazeta, not all of her lyrics fit in. Not because they didn't dare, but maybe because part of her message towards the end was better for the world than for Russian readers. Politkovskaya also eventually became too big for his homeland.
The last words
We had contact with her just after she returned from Beslan in September 2006, in connection with the anniversary of the school terror there. And she finished his latest New Time text like this, after a brutal assault in St. Petersburg, three weeks before she was even murdered:
«Time passed, and the boys got stronger. And then came the time when there was too little space for them in Chechnya. What happened in Saint Petersburg is the start of a Chechenization of the whole of Russia. The total lack of response from the authorities to the violent takeover of the meat factory on September 15 is a handshake, a sign that this will be allowed in the future as well. The "peace" they tried to establish in Chechnya over the past two years has spread beyond Chechnya's borders. "
So wrote Politkovskaya. And then she herself was struck by what many believe is "the Chechen peace": the suspected backers behind her death, the Putin Allied power in Groshny. No one has been convicted of the murder yet.
Did she get that right? Has Chechnya spread more? The lawsuit against Pussy Riot is one thing. Something else is all the other attacks on those who dare to think and speak independently. In April, her colleague Elena Milashina – also a New Time columnist – assaulted on open street. She survived but ended up in hospital. The US State Department has responded, but not Norway – Russia's neighboring countries and close oil allies in the north.
Espen Barth Eide (Ap) has now taken over as new Foreign Minister. It is to be hoped that he can now speak more clearly to the civilians and to the authoritarian Putin regime. We do not need more naive peace agreements in our time – some need clear speech and help now.
Georgia elections
The developments in Russia also say something about developments in other countries in the region. The dictatorship in Belarus is one thing. The scandalous imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine another:
Seven years in prison! What a legitimate deal? Possibly it gets worse. She does not get a visit that she is entitled to. Eide, where are you?
At the same time, there are positive features in the region. In Georgia, authoritarian president Mikhail Saakashvili acknowledged the defeat on Tuesday. Peaceful change of power of choice is the best. At the same time, it is worth noting that Georgia election winner Bidzina Ivanichvili has now promised increased cooperation with the Putin regime. In Turkey, we saw this week that Prime Minister Recip Erdogan, who has ruled since the spring of 2003, suggests a role-change solution similar to that in Russia in 2008. Reuters writes that he will "change the regime so that Turkey gets a president with the same power as it French. It is considered a bad secret that Erdogan himself wants the presidential job. According to the rules of his party, he cannot seek re-election as prime minister at the next election, in 2015. »
power competition
Although the development is startlingly positive in countries such as Burma and with Farc in Colombia, there is reason to be alert elsewhere as well. Sunday is the election in Venezuela. In an interview with the AFP news agency, President Hugo Chávez says he is ready to rule "for several more years," at least until 2019.
Chavez has done much good for the poor, the oil money has come in handy, and his popularity is not unfounded. But at the same time, Chavez is showing a disturbing collaboration with some of the world's worst regimes. He has been sitting since the December 1998 elections, even longer than Putin. Who will sit the longest?
There are probably no more or more authoritarian heads of state we need now, but more who are humble: those who show that they do not put poor people, most people or dissidents under themselves. May the Norwegian Foreign Ministry also become clearer in its speech about what they want there. ■
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 05.10.2012. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)