Russia: Anna Politkovskaya’s Memorial Rally Announced · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated on Oct. 7, 2006. This coming Wednesday, a memorial rally is scheduled to take place outside Chistyye Prudy subway station in Moscow.
A note (RUS) announcing the memorial rally was initially posted on the site of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya wrote for:
It's been three years since the day of Anna Politkovskaya's murder; those who ordered and carried out the killing are still at large.
[…]
These people will take part in the rally:
Aleksey Simonov [president of the Glasnost Defense Foundation], Ilya Politkovsky [Anna Politkovskaya's son], Dmitry Muratov [Novaya Gazeta‘s editor-in-chief], [actress Liya Akhedzhakova], Grigory Chkhartishvili [a writer, aka Boris Akunin], [human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva], [politician Grigory Yavlinsky], [politician Boris Nemtsov], [actress Chulpan Khamatova], [politician Mikhail Kasyanov], [satirist Victor Shenderovich], [journalist] Yulia Kalinina, and others.
The rally will begin at 4:03 PM sharp.
Anna Politkovskaya's photo accompanies the note:
ANNA – Oct. 7, 2006: The killers are still at large.
And there are also the images of other journalists and activists who “lost their lives while carrying out their professional duty” in Russia, from 2000 to 2009 – Telman Alishaev; Anastasiya Baburova and Stanislav Markelov; Magomed-Zagid Varisov; Igor Domnikov; Magomed Yevloyev; Valery Ivanov and Aleksei Sidorov; Vagif Kochetkov; Pavel Makeev; Maksim Maksimov; Eduard Markevich; Ivan Safronov; Natalya Skryl; Paul Klebnikov; Yuri Shchekochikhin; Natalya Estemirova; Vladimir Yatsina:
This announcement has generated only four comments so far:
konoplyov:
And who is the killer and who ordered it? Maybe he's already dead?
gerantidi:
He's more alive than most living. [Berezovsky is his last name.]
miksread:
I'm horrified to see this unimaginable iconostase. I'm horrified to think of whether the number of the participants of the rally will at least be no less [than the number of the people pictured on the poster]. Have they died in vain? Looks like they have.
igel_68:
[Putin] will have to take responsibility for this one day. On the average, two journalists were being killed each year. Mainly those who spoke about the real state of things in Russia. Those who chose not to glorify the regime. Thus, it is possible to talk of a purposeful elimination. Of a genocide based on profession. […]
LJ user viking_nord is one of a few dozen bloggers who reposted the announcement (RUS) on his blog. The post's title is “I'll be there.” The first comment to it is rather insensitive:
vzzhbzl:
“I'll be there.” Is that where Politkovskaya is now? Don't hurry too much, you know. We'll all be there one day.
Here's the rest of the discussion:
viking_nord:
I'm talking about the rally.
vzzhbzl:
Why would you bother? You'll make some noise and disperse – will it change anything?
viking_nord:
But if we don't make any noise, there'll be no changes for sure.
LJ user andrei_naliotov reposted the announcement (RUS) in the ru_politics LJ community (8,722 members). The discussion that's taking place in the comments section right now is rather typical – there's plenty of openly expressed hostility and very little compassion or informativeness:
kidman_moscow:
*yawning*
Don't forget to post a photo report.
***
fetisoff:
Eh, I love taking walks on Chistoprudnyi [Boulevard, the site of the upcoming rally and of a number of other rallies held by the opposition in the past]. But now I have to browse the internet before each walk, to check if some [idiots] are planning to gather there for a rally (though, for some reason, the same ones are protesting there all the time).
***
bobrok_gso:
[Haha], why have you signed up Stasik Markelov as a journalist? Wasn't he a lawyer? Or is [anyone] fit to be an extra?
***
atollos:
All the Mazepas meet the same end. [Refers to the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa – and to Anna Politkovskaya's maiden name, Anna Mazepa.]
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knpnk:
Hm… On the poster with journalists there is one vacant spot in the last row… Must be for a reason…
***
vitaly:
Girlfriend of the bearded guys. [Refers to Anna Politkovskaya and the Chechen militants.]
***
salnikov_vova:
Then go catch them [Anna Politkovskaya's killers]! If they are at large, why don't you catch them or pass the information about them to the police!