Date

04/10/1993  

First

Alexander  

Surname

SIDELNIKOV  

Sex/Age

M, 38  

Incident

crossfire  

Motive

J  

Place

street  

Job

journalist  

Medium

film  

Federal District Plus

Moscow  

Street, Town, Region

Supreme Soviet building, Moscow  

Freelance

yes  

Local/National

local  

Other Ties

 

Cause of Death

crossfire  

Legal Qualification

no information  

Impunity

amnesty  

Seven journalists died in Moscow in early October 1993 when months of confrontation between President Yeltsin and Russia's parliament, the Supreme Soviet, reached their violent culmination.

On the morning of 4 October the Supreme Soviet building was surrounded and shelled by the army but it was not until late afternoon that those inside finally surrendered. In the meantime crowds of curious onlookers swelled numbers outside the building. By evening over 70 had died, among them two out-of-town journalists.

Alexander Sidelnikov, an award-winning film director and cameraman from Leningrad, was also killed near the Supreme Soviet building.

An investigation into the 1993 “disturbances” by the Prosecutor General's office was closed on 23 February 1994 when an amnesty was issued for all involved.