Thoughts on Politkovskaya

Obiter RU has reserved judgement on the February acquittal of Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Sergei Khadzhaikurbanov over the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. It did so as it was and obviously remains an emotive subject, and the dust had to settle before we got any sense out of those involved.


Perhaps predictably, the standard response to date can be characterised as follows:
- It is symbolic of the lack of rule of law in Russia;
- It is reflective of political involvement in the Judicial process;
- It is indicative of the failure of jury trials;
- It is indictment of the Procuracy and its poor evidential standards;
- That her death was the work of foreign conspirators inspired to destabilise the current regime and the verdict itself is thus a side show (one of the more unbalanced points made by intellectually unchallenging Kremlin parrot Peter Lavelle).


In the given case these points are moot if, with the exception of the latter, valid concerns that merit attention. We argue that it is encouraging that an acquittal was awarded at all. The General Procurator and his staff were placed under immense political pressure to secure a conviction. The general public was convinced if not of the defendants' specific complicity in this crime, then of their general complicity in criminality. An acquittal under such circumstances is indeed rare and ones hopes is indicative of some measure of independent judicial discretion and the objectivity of the jury trial in the face of external pressures.

Perhaps not a resounding victory but a sign that there remains some measure of resistance and independence in the legal system. If one is optimistic, as Obiter RU remains, this may mean that the Procuracy will have to improve their evidential standards and levels of professionalism in order to secure what their leadership considers politically desirable or expedient.

Mikhail Mihailyuk

OBITER RU is currently monitoring reports that the burnt body of Mikhail Mikhailyuk, Ukrainian high economic court judge, has been found in his car outside of Kiev. Police investigating the crime have reported unofficially that there is an 80% certainty at least that the body in the car is that of the judge. No official confirmation has been forthcoming and no comment has been made on the cause of death.

Judge Mikhailyuk came to prominence over several high profile commercial court cases including that of Altimo v. Telenor which resulted in a temporarily punitive sanction applied to Altimo, owned by Russian Alfa Group, in the New York Southern District Court at the end of 2008.

Stanislav Markelov and Russian Law under threat

On Monday 19th January at 2:30pm, Stanislav Markelov and his companion, the 25-year old freelance journalist Anastasia Baburova ,were assassinated in Moscow's city centre.

Markelov, only 34, was a human rights lawyer, a champion of the rule of law and a Russian patriot. His assassin did not have the courage to face his victim, shooting him from behind and fleeing to the nearby Kropotkinskaya metro station.

Everyone who cares for Russia, the law, and the all too delicate and tenuous relationship between the two, will mourn the death of Markelov. They will mourn the death of a good and decent man whose humanity was matched only by learning and doggedness. However, they will also mourn the end of his tireless work in defence of those usually deprived of access to the law and to justice. Those such as Elza Kungayeva; only one among many he represented.

Such work is increasingly dangerous, and often fatal, in a country where international posturing and economic extremes can obscure a real systemic crisis at the heart of Russia. Inevitably, the murder to Markelov and Baburova will be marshaled by those who wish to occupy their time engaged in facile Kremlin-bashing. However, the motives of those (for assuredly it was more than one person) behind the killings are unlikely to be so straightforward and attributable. They are more likely to lie in the disenfranchisement, racism, and criminality which is increasingly creeping to the surface in Moscow as elsewhere in the vast country.

We offer our condolences to the family and many friends of Markelov and Baburova, and good luck to those professionals charged with bringing justice to them and to the country.