RUSSIA: Two years after Politkovskaya’s murder, three suspects will go to trial

One the second anniversary of her brutal slaying, three suspects are awaiting to go to trial for the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The suspects are Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer with the Moscow Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, and brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov. Politkovskaya was found shot four times in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow, she was 48. A fourth suspect, Pavel Ryaguzov, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel, has been charged with abuse of office and extortion. He is not accused of direct involvement in Politkovskaya’s murder, but will be tried along with the other three suspects because of his previous association with Khadzhikurbanov. The case is to be heard in military court rather than civil due to the classified materials and the fact theres a FSB officer involved in the case. When Politkovskaya was killed on October 7, 2006, she became the 13th journalist to be slain, contract style, under then President Vladimir Putin’s tenure.