We were framed, claim Chechen murder suspects
The Independent, 1 October 2004, Andrew Osborn in Moscow
FRIENDS AND lawyers of the two Chechen businessmen accused of Russia"s most notorious contract killing of the year - the drive-by shooting of the American investigative journalist Paul Klebnikov - claimed yesterday that the pair had been framed by the police. Mr Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was killed in July after he had just left his office in north-central Moscow two months after publishing Russia"s first rich list.
264 words, (c) 2004 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, distributed or exploited in any way.

Klebnikov Suspects Appear in Court
The Moscow Times, 1 October 2004, Nabi Abdullaev
A Moscow court has ordered that two Chechens detained this week on suspicion of involvement in the murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov be kept in custody for 10 days while police decide whether to press charges. No reference to the high-profile murder was made in the courtroom Wednesday, but an investigation into whether the suspects had kidnapped a businessman will be led by the same team of investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office that is looking into Klebnikov's July killing, major Russian dailies reported Thursday.
414 words, (c) 2004 The Moscow Times All Rights Reserved

PAUL KLEBNIKOV MIGHT HAVE DIED FOR "CONVERSATIONS WITH A BARBARIAN".
RIA Novosty, 1 October 2004
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - Sources close to investigation into the murder of Paul Klebnikov , editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia, have mentioned a priority version. According to them, the journalist was preparing a book on Chechen warlord Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev and received assistance from several mediators who helped him meet the Chechen and even vouched for him. Nukhayev was infuriated by the book when it was published, Vremya Novostei writes, and he allegedly demanded some explanations from the mediators. According to preliminary information, they tried to get an explanation from Klebnikov for a long time and might have decided to kill him.
277 words, Copyright 2004 RIA Vesti. All Rights Reserved.

Moscow police chief did not comment on Pumane case - spokesman.
ITAR-TASS World Service, 1 October 2004
MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) ---- Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin, who is visiting Kiev to attend a joint meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian Interior Ministries ' Board, did not assess the conduct of the Presnensky district prosecutor in the Pumane case and did not report earlier on the investigation of murder of Russian Forbes editor-in-chief Paul Khlebnikov , head of the Moscow police information department Kirill Mazurin told Itar-Tass. Pronin " only told the press that prosecutors are investigating the case, and it has nothing to do with the dismissal of head of the Moscow Department on Organized Crime Vyacheslav Baranov, " Mazurin said.
217 words , (c) 2004 ITAR-TASS

(Corr) Moscow police chief denies suspect bomber, Forbes editor comments
BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union , 2 October 2004 , Excerpt from report by Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 2 October (Correcting the word "retracts" in the headline of the item catchlined FS1-RUSSIA-POLICE to "denies")
247 words ,(c) 2004 The British Broadcasting Corporation [date of publication]. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Iraq Again?
Forbes Global , 4 October 2004 , Tim Ferguson
If these seem like momentous days, consider the year 1979: the second great oil shock, the ascension of Margaret Thatcher, the appointment of Paul Volcker to head the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. To those portentous events add the departure of Iran from the family of interdependent nations.
483 words ,Copyright 2004 Forbes Inc.

Police Chief Denies Klebnikov Remarks
The Moscow Times, 4 October 2004, Carl Schreck
Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin denied Friday that he had announced the arrest of two Chechens earlier in the week and had linked them to the murder of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov . He also denied criticizing an investigation into the beating death of a man suspected of trying to plant a car bomb in Moscow.
722 words, (c) 2004 The Moscow Times All Rights Reserved

Abducted Businessman Blames FSB Officers
The Moscow Times, 5 October 2004 , Carl Schreck
A Dagestani businessman who was allegedly kidnapped by two Chechens linked by police to the murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov said he was in fact abducted by Federal Security Service officers over his failure to pay them $300,000 in a stalled business deal. In an interview published Monday in Kommersant, Akhmed-Pasha Aliyev said he secured $60 million from relatives in the United States to develop 2 hectares in Moscow with a private company partly owned by FSB officers Roman Slivkin, Oleg Sachkov and Dmitry Frolov. Aliyev said he received $300,000 from the company for acting as the intermediary.
457 words, (c) 2004 The Moscow Times All Rights Reserved

Russian ballistic experts deny Klebnikov gun discovery claim
The Russia Journal (E), 5 October 2004
MOSCOW - Ballistic tests of a gun seized from ethnic Chechens Aslan Sagayev and Kazbek Elmurzayev have indicated that the pistol, which police claim killed Paul Klebnikov , the editor of Russian Forbes, was not the one used by his assassin. Last week Moscow police raided the apartment of the two Chechens after receiving a tip off that they were holding a hostage. Three pistols were found in the apartment during a search. A few hours after the Chechens were arrested Moscow's top police official Vladimir Pronin told the press that one of the guns may have been used to kill Paul Klebnikov .
268 words , (c) 2004 The Russia Journal, Russian Story Inc. All Rights Reserved

Russian security officer arrested on kidnapping charges
BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union, 7 October 2004
Text of report by Russian news agency Interfax
Moscow, 7 October: An FSB [Federal Security Service] officer suspected of complicity in taking a businessman hostage and of connections with Chechen criminal structures has been detained in Moscow.
376 words ,(c) 2004 The British Broadcasting Corporation [date of publication]. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Arrest of Russian FSB officer confirmed
Xinhua News Agency , 7 October 2004
MOSCOW, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has confirmed that Roman Slivkin, an officer with the Federal Security Service's (FSB) branch for the republic of Tuva, has been arrested, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. "A court sanctioned Slivkin's arrest. He is suspected of abducting a person and extortion," a Prosecutor General's Office spokesman was cited as saying.
269 words , (c) Copyright 2004 Xinhua News Agency

Reports: Russian security officer arrested for suspected involvement in man's kidnapping
Associated Press Newswires, 7 October 2004
MOSCOW (AP) - An officer in Russia's top security agency has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping of his former business partner and for allegedly having ties to Chechen criminals, news reports said Thursday. Roman Slivkin, a captain in the Federal Security Service, or FSB, was detained in connection with the ransom kidnapping of his former business colleague Akhmed-Pasha Aliyev, the Interfax news agency reported, citing sources in the security services. Interfax later said a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office confirmed the arrest of Slivkin, an officer in the FSB's branch for the remote Tuva region, on suspicion of abduction and extortion.
400 words,(c) 2004. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Prosecutor General's Office confirms FSB officer's arrest
Interfax News Service, 7 October 2004
MOSCOW. Oct 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has confirmed that Roman Slivkin, an officer with the Federal Security Service's (FSB) branch for the republic of Tuva, has been arrested. "A court sanctioned Slivkin's arrest. He is suspected of abducting a person and extortion," a Prosecutor General's Office spokesman told Interfax.
280 words, (c) 2004 Interfax Information Services, B.V.

Detention of FSB officer suspected of abduction confirmed.
ITAR-TASS World Service, 7 October 2004
MOSCOW, October 7 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Prosecutor General ' s Office confirmed the detention of a FSB officer on suspicions of abducting a man, a source at the information and public relations department of the Prosecutor General ' s Office told Itar-Tass. Meanwhile, the department did not comment on media reports that the officer was detained during the investigation of the case on the murder of US journalist Paul Khlebnikov .
243 words, (c) 2004 ITAR-TASS

Arrest at Lubyanka
Russian Press Digest - Russica Izvestia , 7 October 2004 , Sergey Mashkin
FSB officer detained in connection with Paul Klebnikov 's murder. Russian authorities have detained an FSB captain in connection with the July murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov , for his role, along with two other murder suspects, in the kidnapping of a Dagestani businessman.
212 words , (c) 2004 Russica-Izvestia Information Inc. All Rights Reserved

FSB Officer Arrested in Kidnapping
The Moscow Times, 8 October 2004 , Carl Schreck
A Federal Security Service officer has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a kidnapping case that police have linked to the murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov . FSB Major Roman Slivkin was arrested in an investigation into the kidnapping of Dagestani businessman Akhmed-Pasha Aliyev, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office said Thursday.
331 words , (c) 2004 The Moscow Times All Rights Reserved

Putin the poodle
The Spectator, 9 October 2004, John Laughland
John Laughland says that the Russian President has adopted an attitude of appeasement in the face of relentless US expansion
Under communism, the 'open letter' was a device by which political hacks publicly advocated certain policies. The party hierarchy was then usually only too happy to comply, as happened when the 1968 'Letter to Brezhnev' from a group of Czechoslovak commies begged Soviet tanks to crush the counterrevolution in Prague. The historical resonance was therefore piquant, although presumably unintended, when last week a hundred Western politicians and 'intellectuals' published just such a missive, addressed to the heads of state and government of the EU and Nato. In it, they attacked the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, saying that his authoritarian behaviour rendered impossible any true partnership between Russia and Western democracies.
1197 words, (c) The Spectator (1828) Limited 2004

Fact and Comment; Steve Forbes on American medicine and Russian politics.
Forbes , 11 October 2004, Steve Forbes
She Could Have Killed Him
Swift action by medical authorities saved former president Bill Clinton from a possibly fatal heart attack. His qua-druple bypass surgery was "just in time." Tens of thousands of other Americans have had similar experiences.
1658 words, (c) 2004 Forbes Inc.

Publish and be damned: journalism in defiance of the gun Tim Burt examines why foreign magazine groups set up in places where reporting the truth is a dangerous business.
Financial Times, 13 October 2004, By TIM BURT
When Paul Khlebnikov was shot dead on his way home from work, the editor of Forbes Russia became the latest victim of a dirty war against journalists in the former Soviet Union. His assassination in Moscow, almost three months ago, followed a wave of contract killings in the media - often linked to organised criminal gangs or regional power brokers. It also served as a bloody reminder of the risks of investigative reporting, a relatively recent export to Russia and other countries nurtured on state-controlled media.
1162 words, (c) 2004 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved

U.S. Helsinki Commission Members Urge Aggressive Investigation ofMurdered Forbes' Moscow Editor
U.S. Newswire, 14 October 2004
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Eleven members of the United States Helsinki Commission are calling on Russia's President Vladimir Putin to do everything in his power to ensure that authorities aggressively investigate the July 9 murder of Paul Khlebnikov , chief editor of the Forbes Russia magazine. An American journalist of Russian descent, Khlebnikov was shot multiple times by at least one assassin as he stepped outside Forbes' Moscow bureau. According to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Khlebnikov is the 11th journalist in Russia to have been killed in a contract-style murder in the past four and a half years.
559 words, Copyright (c) 2004 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.

Khlebnikov posthumously adjudged Press Freedom Award.
ITAR-TASS World Service, 15 October 2004, By Konstantin Yelovsky
NEW YORK, October 15 (Itar-Tass) -- The Committee to Protect Journalists has decided to mark the contribution to the freedom of the press of Paul Khlebnikov , editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine, who was assassinated in Moscow last July. The committee announced on Thursday that Khlebnikov would posthumously get the International Press Freedom Award.
162 words, (c) 2004 ITAR-TASS

At the junction of business, politics and crime
Russian Press Digest - Russica Izvestia, 15 October 2004, Dmitry Simakin
U.S. lawmakers urged Vladimir Putin to facilitate the investigation of Paul Klebnikov 's murder Five U.S. senators and six congressmen signed a letter to the Russian president Vladimir Putin asking him to assist in the investigation of journalist Paul Klebnikov 's murder.
187 words, (c) 2004 Russica-Izvestia Information Inc. All Rights Reserved

CPJ to honor journalists with International Press Freedom Awards
Primedia Insight , 20 October 2004
Four journalists will receive the 2004 International Press Freedom Award next month from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The group also will posthumously honor slain Forbes Russia editor-in-chief Paul Klebnikov . The four include:
156 words, Copyright 2004 by Primedia Business Magazines & Media Inc. All rights reserved.

Russia low on world press freedom list
BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union , 27 October 2004, Text of report by Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 27 October
[Presenter] The international organization Reporters Without Borders has placed Russia very low in the world press freedom ranking. Russia held the 147th place on a list of 167 countries. The reason was explained to us by the organization's spokeswoman for Europe, Soria Blattman.
235 words , (c) 2004 The British Broadcasting Corporation [date of publication]. All Rights Reserved. No material may be reproduced except with the express permission of The British Broadcasting Corporation.

RUSSIA GETS LOW GRADE FOR PRESS FREEDOM.
RIA Novosty , 28 October 2004
MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia ranks 140th for press freedom in the year 2004, according to a new global index released by Reporters Without Borders. The survey covers 167 countries worldwide. The organization points out in a commentary that Russian media coverage of the Beslan hostage-taking crisis earlier this year revealed the Kremlin's ongoing control of major television broadcasters in the country. It also criticizes the Russian government for censoring the coverage of developments in Chechnya and the recent murder of Paul Khlebnikov , Moscow-based Editor-in-Chief of the Forbes magazine's Russian-language version.
400 words, Copyright 2004 RIA Vesti. All Rights Reserved.