Orders to Kill

by Amy Knight

    4.  Tatiana Vol’tskaia, “Oni ubivaiut tekh, kogo slushaiut liudi,” Svoboda.org, May 17, 2016, http://www.svoboda.org/a/27740352.html.

    5.  Galina Starovoitova, “Sovereignty After Empire. Self-determination Movements in the Former Soviet Union,” U.S. Institute of Peace, November 1997, http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/pwks19.pdf.

    6.  Boris Bruk, “She Has Stepped Into Eternity. In Memory of Galina Starovoitova,” Institute of Modern Russia, May 16, 2013, http://imrussia.org/en/politics/460-she-has-stepped-into-eternity-in-memory-of-galina-starovoitova.

    7.  Ibid. Also see the Russian website, Starovoitova.ru.

    8.  Vladimir Kara-Murza, “Ubiistvo Galiny Starovoitovoi raskryto? Svoboda.org, August 28, 2015, http://www.svoboda.org/a/27214454.html.

    9.  See a February 4, 1994 interview with Starovoitova in English: “Yeltsin Misread the Elections,” Demokratizatsiya, 2, no. 2, 1994, https://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/demokratizatsiya%20archive/02-2_Starovoitova.pdf.

  10.  Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy, 106-127; Masha Gessen, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (New York: Riverhead Books, 2012), 120–129.

  11.  Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy, 126–141.

  12.  Ibid.

  13.  Andrew Meier, Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), 344.

  14.  Anastasiia Mikhailova, “Tri versii ubiistva Starovoitovoi,” RBK telekanal, August 20, 2015, http://www.rbc.ru/politics/20/08/2015/55d5b36e9a7947ad179c701c.

  15.  See the detailed and meticulously researched account of these murders on the blog of Blikol Osinov, http://osinov.livejournal.com/4801.html.

  16.  Ibid.

  17.  Ibid.; Dawisha, Putin’s Kleptocracy, 177–178; Anton B-Samarin, “Sud ne poveril deputatskomu rassledovaniiu,” Kommersant, March 14, 2005, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/554196; Anastasiia Kirilenko, “Putin, Shutov, ‘Ozero’ i ‘Belyi lebed’” Svoboda.org, December 21, 2014, http://www.svoboda.org/a/26755073.html

  18.  http://osinov.livejournal.com/4801.html.

  19.  Interview with Olga Starovoitova, Ekho Moskvy, November 22, 2013, http://echo.msk.ru/programs/year2013/1202491-echo/.

  20.  Irina Tumakova, “Advokaty ishchut protivorechiia v pokazaniakh Ruslana Lin’kova,” Izvestiia, October 23, 2004, http://izvestia.ru/news/295671.

  21.  Dmitrii Gordienko, “Ruslan Lin’kov opoznal v sude odnogo iz streliavshikh v Galinu Starovoitovu,” Fontanka.ru.—29 июня 2004, http://starovoitova.ru/rus/main.php?i=9&s=153.

  22.  Oksana Yablokova, “Suspect Detained in Starovoitova Murder,” the Moscow Times, February 5, 2000, http://old.themoscowtimes.com/sitemap/free/2000/2/article/suspect-detained-in-starovoitova-murder/267084.html.

  23.  Ekho Moskvy, November 22, 2013.

  24.  http://osinov.livejournal.com/4185.html.

  25.  Ekho Moskvy, November 22, 2013.

  26.  Meier, Black Earth, 345–348.

  27.  Ibid., 348.

  28.  Starovoitova.ru: novosti i khod sledstviia, http://www.starovoitova.ru/rus/main.php?i=9&s=4.

  29.  Ibid.

  30.  The official indictments and final sentences are available at Starovoitova.ru.

  31.  Viktor Kosiukovskii, “Ubiistvo Starovoitovoi: Sledy spetssluzhb?” Russkii Kur’er, March 14, 2005, http://rusk.ru/st.php?idar=10535; Mikhailova, “Tri versii ubiistva Starovoitovoi.”

  32.  Konstantin Shmelev, “V ubiistve Galiny Starovoitovoi nashli organizatora,” Fontanka.ru, November 7, 2013, http://www.fontanka.ru/2013/11/07/068/.

  33.  https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/54/5410884_re-insight-russia-head-of-major-criminal-group-arrested.html.

  34.  The interview was published on March 25, 2016 on the website of Open Russia: https://openrussia.org/post/view/13831/.

  35.  Aleksandr Litvinenko, with Aleks Goldfarb, LPG-Lubianskaia prestupnaia gruppirovka (New York: Grani, 2002), 82, http://royallib.com/read/litvinenko_aleksandr/lubyanskaya_prestupnaya_gruppirovka.html#0.

  36.  Interview with Shenderovich on the website Open Russia, December 25, 2015, https://openrussia.org/post/view/11565/.

  37.  Vol’tskaia, “Oni ubivaiut.”

  38.  Interview with Radio Svoboda, August 28, 2015, http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/27214454.html.

  39.  Initially, according to one source, Linkov was suspected by local investigators of being involved in the murder. See Brian Whitmore, “The Strange Investigation of Galina Starovoitova’s Murder, Prism, 5, issue 2, January 29, 1999.

  40.  Ruslan Linkov, Zapiski nedobitka, (St. Petersburg: AMFORA, 2007).

  41.  See an interview Linkov had with Radio Liberty about the book: http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/410813.html; and Anna Narinskaia, “Vodila Vladimirovich,” Kommersant.ru, September 27, 2007, http://kommersant.ru/doc/807006?themeid=960.

  4.   Terror in Russia: September 1999

    1.  Gregory L. White, “Boris Nemtsov’s Career Traces Arch of Russia’s Dimmed Hopes for Democracy,” The Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2015; http://www.wsj.com/articles/boris-nemtsovs-career-traces-arc-of-russias-dimmed-hopes-for-democracy-1425168024.

    2.  See Sergei Kovalev, “Putin’s War,” The New York Review of Books, 47, no. 2, February 10, 2000, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/02/10/putins-war/.

    3.  Vladimir Vedrashko, “Na vse to Volia..ch’ia?” Radio Svoboda, September 8, 2009, http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/1818078.html.

    4.  Ibid.

    5.  John B. Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings of September 1999. Examinations of Russian Terrorist Attacks at the Onset of Vladimir Putin’s Rule, with a Foreword by Amy Knight (Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag, 2012), 85-89. Also see my review of the book: Amy Knight, “Finally We Know About the Moscow Bombings,” The New York Review of Books, 59, no. 18, November 22, 2012, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/; and David Satter, Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State (New Haven & London: Yale University Press), 63-71.

    6.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 9.

    7.  The words of Sergei Mingalev in the documentary film “Disbelief,” produced by Alexander Nekrasov in 2004, https://archive.org/details/Disbelief2004.

    8.  Grigory Pasko, “Is Mikhail Trepashkin’s Life in Danger?” December 13, 2006, http://robertamsterdam.com/grigory_pasko_is_mikhail_trepashkins_life_in_danger/.

    9.  Ekho Moskvy, September 1, 2015, http://echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1614184-echo/.

  10.  As quoted in Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 59.

  11.  Andrei Pointkovsky, “Svidetel’ Gol’dfarb,” Grani.ru, October 13, 2009, http://graniru.org/Politics/Russia/m.160589.html.

  12.  Alex Goldfarb with Marina Litvinenko, Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB (New York: Free Press, 2007), 191.

  13.  See the transcript of a round-table discussion: “Vzryvy domov v 99-m: komu vygodno,” Radio Svoboda, September 8, 2015, http://www.svoboda.org/content/transcript/27233566.html.

  14.  Ibid.

  15.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 236.

  16.  Ibid., 139.

  17.  Reuven Paz, “Al-Khattab: From Afghanistan to Dagestan,” International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, September 20, 1999, http://web.archive.org/web/20001217021000/http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=94.

  18.  Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky, Blowing up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror (New York: Encounter Books, 2007), 130. The book was first published in Russian as FSB vzryvaet Rossiiu. (See note 33, below.)

  19.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 161–162.

  20.  Greg Myre, “Warlord Becoming Most Feared Man in Russia,” AP, September 15, 1999, http:/
/community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990915&slug=2983256.

  21.  Muhammad al-’Ubaydi, “Khattab (1962-2002),” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, February, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20150814143452/https://www.ctc.usma.edu/v2/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CTC_Khattab-Jihadi-Bio-February2015-3.pdf.

  22.  Satter, Darkness at Dawn, 66.

  23.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 158–159.

  24.  See the blog of Roman Dobrokhotov on Live Journal, September 9, 2009, http://dobrokhotov.livejournal.com/383212.html; Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 248–251.

  25.  On this incident, see Litvinenko and Felshtinsky, Blowing up Russia, 54–99; Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 167–215; Satter, Darkness At Dawn, 25–33.

  26.  Litvinenko and Felshtinsky, Blowing Up Russia, 56–57.

  27.  Ibid., 62–66.

  28.  Ibid., 72.

  29.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 210.

  30.  Litvinenko and Feldshtinsky, Blowing Up Russia, 77.

  31.  Pavel Voloshin, “Geksogen. FSB. Ryazan,” Novaia gazeta, March 13, 2000.

  32.  Satter, Darkness at Dawn, 32.

  33.  Aleksandr Litvinenko, Yurii Fel’shtinskii, FSB vzryvaet Rossiyu (New York: Liberty Publishing House, 2002).

  34.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sx2YmSXDy8.

  35.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 203–208. The Arifdzhanov article appeared in Sovershenno sekretno, no. 6, 2002.

  36.  Dmitrii Sokolv, “Riazan’, sentiabr’ 1999: ucheniia ili terakt?” Politkom.ru, September 11, 2002, http://old.sakharov-center.ru/news/2007/0918/spravka.php.

  37.  Ibid.

  38.  Ibid.

  39.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 211. Also see grani.ru, May 30, 2003, http://graniru.org/Events/Terror/m.34083.html.

  40.  Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings, 120–121.

  41.  Sokolov, “Riazan’.”

  42.  “Zhertvy terakta. Kak zhivut volgodontsy, postradavshie ot vzryva v 1999 godu,” Argumenty i fakty, September 11, 2014, http://www.rostov.aif.ru/society/persona/1336299 (9/11/2014).

  43.  “Volgodonsk residents commemorate victims of 1999 terrorist act,” Caucasian Knot, September 16, 2013, http://eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/18393/.

  44.  Sergei Kovalev,“Why Putin Wins,” The New York Review of Books, 54, no. 18, November 22, 2007, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/11/22/why-putin-wins/.

  5.   Silencing Critics

    1.  Elena Pokalova, Chechnya’s Terrorism Network: The Evolution of Terrorism in Russia’s North Caucasus (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2015), 122.

    2.  Memorandum of telephone conversation between Clinton and Blair, February 8, 2000. National Security Council and Records Management Office, “Declassified documents concerning Tony Blair,” Clinton Digital Library, accessed June 3, 2017, https://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/48779.

    3.  Caroline Wyatt, “Bush and Putin: Best of Friends,” BBC News, June 16, 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm.

    4.  http://www.edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/10/ar911.russia.putin/index.html.

    5.  Polakova, Chechnya’s Terrorist Network, 122.

    6.  Ibid., 124.

    7.  Goldfarb, Death of a Dissident, 248.

    8.  Prague Watchdog, September 24, 2003, http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000003-000002-000037&lang=1; CPJ/Committee to Protect Journalists, https://cpj.org/killed/europe/russia/.

    9.  Anna Politkovskaya, A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches From Chechnya (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 26–27.

  10.  See a report by the International Federation of Journalists: https://www.ifex.org/russia/2009/06/23/ifj_partial_justice_report.pdf.

  11.  Viacheslav Izmailov, “Kto ubil Igoria Domnikova?” Novaia gazeta, July 14, 2005, http://2005.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2005/50n/n50n-s00.shtml.

  12.  Sergei Sokolov, Vera Chelishcheva, “Nazvan zakazchik ubiistva zhurnalista Igoria Domnikova, Novaia gazeta, March 10, 2015, http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/67568.html.

  13.  Vera Chelishcheva, “Sud prikratel delo protiv zakazchika ubiistva zhurnalista Igoria Domnikova,” Novaia gazeta, May 13, 2015, http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/1693743.html.

  14.  Newsru.com, April 17, 2003, http://www.newsru.com/russia/17apr2003/killed.html.

  15.  As cited in Mavra Kosichkina, “Gibel’ Sergeia Iushenkova: kto eto sdelal, lordyi?” Politruk, April 23, 2003, http://www.wps.ru/en/pp/politruk/2003/04/23.html.

  16.  Vladimir Korsunskii, “Putin vinoven v ubiistve Iushenkov,” Grani.ru, March 22, 2004, Grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.64562.html. That Iushenkov and Berezovsky reconciled was confirmed by Alex Goldfarb. See Goldfarb, Death of a Dissident, 278.

  17.  Korsunskii, “Putin vinoven;” Mariia-Liuiza Tirmaste, Sergei Diunin, Siuzanna Farizova, “Ubiistvo na ulitse Svobody,” Kommersant.ru, April 18, 2004, http://www.compromat.ru/page_13012.htm.

  18.  “Genri Resnik: Kodaneva ogovorili,” grani.ru, March 17, 2004, http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.63911.html.

  19.  Rashid Alimov and Bellona Web, “FSB Threatened Sergey Yushenkov,” Pravda.ru, April 24, 2003, http://www.pravdareport.com/hotspots/crimes/24-04-2003/2654-pasko-0/.

  20.  Nabi Abdullaev, “Berezovsky’s Man Held in Yushenkov’s Murder, the Moscow Times, June 27, 2003, http://old.themoscowtimes.com/sitemap/free/2003/6/article/berezovskys-man-held-in-yushenkovs-murder/237530.html.

  21.  Goldfarb, Death of a Dissident, 259.

  22.  Ibid., 258.

  23.  See John B. Dunlop, The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises. A Critique of Russian Counter-terrorism (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2006). Also see my review of the book: Amy Knight, “The Kremlin Cover,” The Times Literary Supplement, May 19, 2006.

  24.  Goldfarb, Death of a Dissident, 274–276. For more on Politkovskaya and Terkibaev, see chapter 6.

  25.  Ibid., 277.

  26.  “Shchekochikhin, Iurii,” Lenta.ru, https://lenta.ru/lib/14170685/.

  27.  Virginie Coulloudon, “Yuri Shchekochikhin: How Long Can One Write About the Same Thing?” RFERL Russian Report, July 16, 2003, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1344361.html; “Iurii Shchekochikhin: Smert’ Zhurnalista,” video, Sovershenno Sekretno, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoGcb7cdY6A.

  28.  Victor Yasmann, “Corruption Scandal Could Shake Kremlin,” RFERL Russian Report, September 26, 2006, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1071621.html.

  29.  “Kak Shchekochikhin ‘sdal’ Adamova FBR,” Kompromat.ru, http://www.compromat.ru/page_19030.htm.

  30.  Author interview with Nadezda Azhgikhina, November 9, 2016. She observed of her husband, “he was not a politician, but a romanticist.”

  31.  “Agent Neizvesten,” Novaia gazeta, October 30, 2006, http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/82n/n82n-s05.shtml.

  32.  Sergei Sokolov, “10 let nazad umer Iurii Shchekochikhin,” Novaia gazeta, July 2, 2013, https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/07/03/55342-my-stavim-tochku.

  33.  Author interview with Nadezda Azhgikhina.

  34.  Richard Behar, “Did Boris Berezovsky Kill Himself? More Compelling, Did He Kill Forbes Editor Paul Klebnikov?” Forbes, March 24, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2013/03/24/did-boris-berezovsky-kill-himself-more-compelling-did-he-kill-forbes-editor-paul-klebnikov/2/#56a349e7123a.

  35.  Ironically, Klebnikov wrote his PhD dissertation at the London School of Economics on Petr Stolypin, the reformist Russian prime minister who was assassinated by Russian radical revolutionaries in 1911.

  36.  http://www.forbes.ru/forbes/issue/2004-05.

  37.  Musa Klebnikov, testimony to Helsinki Commission, June 23, 2009, https://www.csce.gov/sites/helsinkicommission.house.gov/files/TESTIMONY.Klebnikov.pdf.

  38.  Th
e book, Razgovor s varvarom, is available on the website Kompromat.ru: http://www.compromat.ru/page_17052.htm.

  39.  “Pola Khlebnikova ubil varvar,” Izvestiia, June 17, 2005, http://www.compromat.ru/page_16927.htm.

  40.  Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary (London: Vintage Books, 2007), 128.

  41.  See Timothy Wittig, Understanding Terrorist Finance (London Palgrove Macmillan, 2011), 9.