Date

19/01/2009  

First

Anastasia  

Surname

BABUROVA  

Sex/Age

F, 25  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

J  

Place

street  

Job

journalist  

Medium

print  

Federal District Plus

Moscow  

Street, Town, Region

Prechistenka St, Moscow  

Freelance

yes  

Local/National

national, Novaya gazeta  

Other Ties

anti-fascist activist  

Cause of Death

murder, shot  

Legal Qualification

105 (murder)  

Impunity

trial, conviction  

[Entry revised, January 2010]

On 19 January 2009 Anastasia Baburova, a journalist with Novaya gazeta, was shot in the centre of Moscow, together with the lawyer Stanislav Markelov. They were returning from a press conference on Prechistenka Street when a gunman approached Markelov from behind and shot him in the head. Baburova took several steps towards Markelov’s assailant. He turned and also shot her. Markelov was killed on the spot; Baburova died several hours later in hospital.

There were several suggestions as to why Markelov, and Baburova, were attacked. One linked Markelov’s involvement as a lawyer in the case of Mikhail Beketov, chief editor of Khimkinskaya pravda. A second suggestion is that Markelov’s call, issued at the press conference, for the recently paroled ex-colonel Budanov to be sent back to prison was the reason. Some sources say the lawyer was repeatedly threatened with death if he did not leave Budanov alone. A third suggestion was that nationalists had taken revenge for the antifascist activities of Markelov, and Baburova. Among his other activities, Markelov was also the lawyer responsible for Novaya gazeta’s various cases: the Domnikov murder, the cases that arose from Anna Politkovskaya’s various publications ...

Baburova was 25 and a trainee journalist with Novaya gazeta. She had moved from the Crimea to Moscow to study but soon decided that journalism and, in particular, the exposure of neo-fascist and racist violence was her field.

GDF Digest and other sources, January 2009


A FAREWELL TO ANASTASIA

Yesterday, Friday 23 January, Moscow said farewell to Anastasia Baburova. The ceremony was held at 10.30 am in the hall set aside for such purposes at the capital’s Central Clinical Hospital.

Those who came to say goodbye to Nastya were her colleagues from Novaya gazeta, fellow journalists, lecturers and class mates from the journalism faculty at Moscow University, and her anti-fascist friends. More than one hundred people had filed past the coffin and placed live flowers around her before the end of the funeral service.

The ceremony was opened by Sergei Sokolov, editor in chief of Novaya gazeta. Nastya had died very young but had lived her life to the full, he said, and achieved a great deal. Then her parents said a few words. Eduard and Larisa Baburov recalled what a cheerful little girl Nastya had been. She played chess and took third place in the CIS championships; she took up martial arts; she won places at several colleges and institutes at once. They said how much she had wanted to become a journalist ... “If I had known what you would be doing here I would never have let you go to Moscow,” Larisa Baburova said over the coffin of her only daughter.

Her friends recalled the Nastya they knew. She never let anyone down, was never afraid and had great inner strength. Many did not hide their tears. Her friends from the anti-fascist movement talked of their other comrades who had died at the hands of Russia’s neo-Nazis: Alexander Ryukhin, Timur Kacharava and Alexei Krylov.

A little later a delegation arrived at the hospital from the Russian Union of Journalists. They carried a large wreath of fresh flowers and expressed their condolences to Nastya’s parents. The honorary president of the journalism faculty Yasen Zasursky was also present. The dean of the Moscow University faculty of journalism Yelena Vartanova described Nastya’s work as a student and added that soon, evidently, the faculty would have to add courses in self-defence to its training programme.

People were still filing past the coffin as the ceremony came to an end. By 2 pm only relatives and Nastya’s closest friends remained. The distressed anti-fascists smoked on the hospital steps.

On Saturday Nastya’s coffin was transported to her home town of Sebastopol in the Crimea. The funeral takes place on Monday.

Novaya gazeta (6), 23 January 2009 (in English)


"MURDERER WILL BE CAUGHT"

The murderer of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova will be caught, announced Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office, at a press conference at the Interfax head office.

Investigators know whom they are looking for, he said, but have not found him yet. The appearance and approximate occupation of the murderer, his contacts and ideology, are known. “The murderer is somewhere here, around,” Bastrykin said and criticized his police colleagues for being too slow.

Markelov had run several widely-reported cases and shortly before his death tried to protest the release of Yury Budanov on parole. Quite often the lawyer represented the interests of anarchist and pacifist movements having problems with the law. He was active against neo-Nazi and fascist groups.

CJES bulletin, August 2009


FIRST ARRESTS ARE MADE

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 3 and 4 November 2009, the first suspects in the Markelov-Baburova murder case were arrested. The operation was shrouded in secrecy. Investigators had been hard at work, both among nationalist groups and the public as a whole, before the arrests were made.

The names of the suspects were officially released on 5 November: they are Yevgenia Khasis (born 1985) and Nikita Tikhonov (born 1980). That day the Investigations Committee at the Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that the two had been charged with murder (Article 105.2 of the RF Criminal Code, “murder by a group of persons by prior agreement”).

From the outset the investigators’ most favoured interpretation was that Russian fascists, whom lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova considered their sworn enemies, had been behind the shooting.

Novaya gazeta (123), 6 November 2009 (in English)


NEW CHARGES

More charges have been brought against Yevgenia Khasis, who is suspected of involvement in the January 2009 killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova.

“She is now charged with a crime under Articles 105 (murder) and 222 (illegal acquisition of firearms) of the Criminal Code ,” RIA Novosti quoted lawyer Alexander Vasilyev as saying. Two suspects in the crime (Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis) were detained in early November.

Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov has told an online conference that the only way the newspaper can protect its journalists is to stop reporting what it is reporting, which is impossible. “Unfortunately, thee is no other way,” Muratov said.

CJES bulletin, 27 December 2009