CHECHNYA'S strongman prime minister,  Ramzan Kadyrov, said yesterday that he did not order the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist who wrote articles alleging that he was behind brutal rights abuses. | “Chechens do not go in for violently settling scores... I do not kill women, and I have never killed women," Mr Kadyrov said...” |
"Chechens do not go in for violently settling scores, certainly not with women. And she was a woman... I do not kill women, and I have never killed women," Mr Kadyrov, 30, said in comments broadcast by television. "As for Anna Politkovskaya, she did not get in my way ... I think the people who ordered her killing did it once again to blacken my name."
Mr Kadyrov's pro-Moscow militia - known as the "Kadyrovtsy" - was a regular target of her writing. The Novaya Gazeta newspaper, where Ms Politkovskaya worked, said it believed that her murder was linked to Mr Kadyrov: either an attempt to silence his most vocal critic, or a ploy by his rivals to discredit him. In an article published on 11 September, Ms Politkovskaya wrote: "In Chechnya, the 'Kadyrovtsy' beat men and women ... and they cut the throats of their enemies." Human rights groups say Mr Kadyrov's forces effectively run Chechnya on the Kremlin's behalf and are behind frequent abductions and killings. Mr Kadyrov has denied the accusations. |