Daily Archives: September 23, 2008

The state newspaper Rossiiskaya gazeta announced yesterday that the Anna Politkovskaya murder case will soon go to court.

An official representative from the Investigation Committee saidthat charges have been made against three people: Sergei Khadzhikurbanov (he bought the murder weapon), and Dzhabrail and Ibrahim Makhmudov (they were accomplices).  Former FSB agent Pavel Riaguzov, who is accused abusing his position and extortion, was already charged.  The General Prosecutor plans on submitting the investigative material to the court by the end of the week.  The case could be tried either in a Moscow city court or a military court said Murad Musaev, the defendants lawyer.

This however is only part of the case.  Rustam Makhmudov, the suspected triggerman, is still on the loose and believed to be hidiing n Western Europe.  Who ordered the hit still remains a mystery.

The editors of Novaya gazeta, which is conducting its own investigation, has yet to officially comment.  ..read more

Medvedev and Putin looking Presidential

Dmitri Medvedev is not just President of Russia. Nor is he simply a rising global interlocutor. He, or really his visage, is also the subject to the whims of the marketplace. According to Kommersant Vlast,

People are even trying to sell the portrait of the President of Russia using spam.  Evidently, the reason for the crisis of production which has arisen in the market of portraits of Russian government leaders, is because sellers overestimated buyers demand for portraits of Dmitri Medvedev. On the internet several internet shops exists that sell the portrait of the President and between them there is a genuine trading war.

One site, www.portrets.ru, is allowing you to download creepy portraits of Medvedev and Putin for free!