The House of Cards Trembles
By Sean at 31 August, 2007, 9:23 am
It’s already falling like a house of cards. Two more suspects in the Politikovskaya murder were taken off the list today. Prosecutors announced that Oleg Alimov, one of the former Moscow police officers, has been freed from custody. Alimov and his three colleagues were suspected of working with former FSB officer Pavel Riaguzov, police Major Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and three Chechen brothers in the murder. However, Kommersant is now reporting that “an integral part of the Prosecutor’s map of the crime fell apart with the suspects Riaguzov and Khadzhikurbanov. The General Prosecutor presented both with charges of abducting people, violating the privacy of homes, and abusing their position and using excessive official authority.” These charges are for crimes the two men committed with their were a spook and a cop in 2002. “I don’t understand on what basis they tried to tie my client to the Politkovskaya murder case,” Riaguzov’s lawyer told Kommersant. “The charges that they presented to Riaguzov have no connection whatsoever to the murder. A direct connection between both cases is found in the minds of the Prosecutors.” We can probably expect the release of more suspects in the coming days.
Russian officials acknowledge that releasing suspects in a normal practice. “An investigation is being conducted and if the charge doesn’t fit, the suspect is freed.” Some feel that there is pressure for the Politkovskaya investigation be quick, leading to mistakes, rush to judgment, and not fully scrutinizing sources and leads. I can buy that. I’ve seen Law and Order.
It all makes you wonder though if Chaika shot his load too early. Or the announcement is merely part of a campaign to let the world know that the Russians are looking. Another possibility is as Iuliya Latynina suggested, and perhaps she is right, that the “shit was beginning to ooze” and the public was going to find out anyway. If that’s the case, the Prosecutor’s Office might have figured they might as well get some propaganda value out of it. Unfortunately for them, the release of more suspects might squander whatever value is left.
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“Another possibility is as Iuliya Latynina suggested, and perhaps she is right, that the ’shit was beginning to ooze’ and the public was going to find out anyway.”
****
A most overrated pundit.
And a broken record doth skip.
The constant putting on the pedestal of Latynina being that “broken record” oh educated one.
Here’s part of what Latynina said Sat night on Ekho Moskvy:
[…] Kommersant prints that Sergei Khadzhikurbanov – a detective in the ethnic gang section of UBOP who, according to the investigation, was asked by the Makhmudov brothers to find people to trail Politkovskaya — that he has an iron-clad alibi, that in 2004 he was jailed for 4 years. And that he was released only after the murder. So, ladies and gentlemen, I say with authority and the authority of Novaya gazeta – we share this announcement – that Mr Khadzhikurbanov was released from prison in Sept 2006, and that a very interesting factor, because Ms Politkovskaya was killed on Oct 7, 2006. Now ask yourselves – no matter what kind of detective he was, no matter what kind of criminal he was – a creep and all the rest – he gets released in Sept and in Oct, and according to the investigation, he takes part in a high profile murder that is extremely dangerous for everyone who takes part. A question arises: under what circumstances, what kind of lunatic detective gets out of prison and does that right away? One of the obvious answers – if he was released to do it […] I had two versions [of what’s happening]. One is that it was a huge conspiracy connected with the elections. And thank God that version isn’t right. The second version is that the investigation is being intentionally destroyed.