Date

17/05/2001  

First

Vladimir  

Surname

KIRSANOV  

Sex/Age

M  

Incident

homicide  

Motive

J  

Place

town  

Job

chief editor  

Medium

print  

Federal District Plus

URALS  

Street, Town, Region

Kurgan  

Freelance

no  

Local/National

local  

Other Ties

 

Cause of Death

murder  

Legal Qualification

105 (murder)  

Impunity

investigation, halted  

From “PARTIAL JUSTICE” report (June 2009)

Journalist and chief editor Vladimir Kirsanov set out for work on the morning of 17 May 2001 but did not arrive at the Kurganskie vesti newspaper offices. He has not been seen since.

Traces of Kirsanov’s blood were found in the garage from which he collected his car that morning to drive to work, and also in the boot of the car. Investigators believe he was murdered in the garage and the car then used to dispose of his body. The vehicle was later left in a parking lot near the newspaper offices, probably to prevent relatives and colleagues becoming suspicious too early.

BACKGROUND

Kirsanov was born and educated in the Urals city of Kurgan (the Gateway to Siberia), which today has a population of 324,000. He began as a journalist with the thrice-weekly Kurgan i Kurgantsy newspaper and, according to colleagues, became the leading reporter on the economy of the city and the surrounding region.

The Urals remains a depressed part of Russia, dependent on State subsidies, with high levels of corruption. In a series of publications Kirsanov exposed the inefficient management of Governor Oleg Bogomolov and his entourage and became first a supporter, and later an activist, with the local opposition. Kurgan i Kurgantsy was a city newspaper linked to the mayor Anatoly Yelchaninov. The mayor had a tense relationship with the Regional administration and wanted to run for governor himself. Kirsanov not only worked as an investigative journalist but also, according to relatives and colleagues, he started writing articles commissioned by people close to the mayor. In the 2000 gubernatorial elections Kirsanov’s political commitments became much more open.

In a campaign funded by a group of local industrialists led by Andrei Aleinikov, a special newspaper called Abzats was created for the elections and Kirsanov was appointed editor-in-chief. With Pavel Ovsyannikov, another local journalist, Kirsanov wrote a pamphlet entitled Prosto Oleg (Oleg’s Story). This was a fine piece of political writing, combining information about corruption and the local economy with imagined scenes from Governor Bogomolov’s childhood and personal life. It was used in elections and other campaigns against the governor in 2004 and 2007. It was not published, however, until after Kirsanov had disappeared.

Aleinikov’s candidate failed to dislodge Bogomolov but Kirsanov was paid handsomely for his work. He used the funds to set up his own newspaper Kurganskie vesti, which was registered in January 2001. It was less politicised than Abzats but continued to expose corruption, and Kirsanov’s articles were published in other local and even in certain national newspapers. Aleinikov provided some funding to begin with but there is disagreement as to whether the newspaper was in good heart financially.

INTERPRETATIONS

Larisa Chertova, Kirsanov’s widow was allowed, once only, to examine the case materials. She has enumerated the four interpretations that the official investigators examined.

Two lines of enquiry were considered and dismissed: there were no serious grounds for treating this as a domestic crime or as a faked murder. Eduard, Kirsanov’s older brother, had commercial interests and involved Vladimir in many of his projects, including the criminalised and dangerous sphere of real estate. This was thoroughly examined as a possible explanation for his death and, as a variant of this interpretation, the official investigators suggested that the crime might be related to the economic activities of Kirsanov’s newspaper. Colleagues and friends categorically rejected this view. Later the investigators accepted their viewpoint.

This left a fourth and final line of inquiry into Kirsanov’s activities as a journalist and editor. In late 2001 the Kurgan Region prosecutor Nikolai Vlasov told Moscow journalist Irina Chernova that Kirsanov’s killing was definitely linked to his work: she was making a report for the “Individual and the Law” programme on the ORT TV channel but the item was never broadcast.

There were serious disagreements, however, between the official investigators and Kirsanov’s colleagues as to the nature of the link between his work and his death. People close to governor Oleg Bogomolov wanted to make sure Kirsanov’s pamphlet was not published, the journalists said. Investigators from the prosecutor’s office were reluctant to test this theory. A copy of the pamphlet was nevertheless added to the case materials after Svetlana Mekhnina, editor of the local Urals edition of Argumenty i fakty provided a copy on diskette.

In the years since Kirsanov’s disappearance doubts have been raised about this explanation. In particular his co-author Pavel Ovsyannikov has stressed that well before the December 2000 elections numerous excerpts from the pamphlet had been published in local newspapers. It was already very popular some while before May 2001. Bogomolov retained his post so there might seem little need to eliminate his journalistic opponent. For her part Kirsanov’s widow Larisa Chertova, a trained political scientist, has also voiced doubts as to the validity of this explanation. (Kirsanov’s parents had no particular views about the possible reasons for their son’s death.)

INVESTIGATION

On 17 May 2001, the day Kirsanov disappeared, the city police department opened a criminal case concerning the burglary of his apartment (Article 158.2 of the Criminal Code). Larisa Chertova discovered that someone had been in their flat and reported the matter to the police.

Four days later, in response to the suspicious circumstances surrounding Kirsanov’s disappearance, the city prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case under Article 105.1 (murder). On 23 May the two cases were combined and taken over by the Kurgan Region prosecutor’s office. Four agencies contributed to the investigative team (police, prosecutor’s office, FSB and the organised crime squad) and up to 15 people were assigned to the case.

In January 2002 the investigation was suspended since no one suspected of involvement in the crime had been identified. This decision was examined a year later by the Prosecutor General's office and no grounds were found for over-ruling the decision. Thereafter it was periodically reviewed by the Kurgan Region prosecutor’s office.

Appeals were made repeatedly by Kirsanov’s widow and parents but they were constantly re-directed to other bodies. A formal request for information about the case was made to the Prosecutor General in summer 2001 by the Duma security committee, thanks to the support of Duma deputy and journalist Yury Shchekochikhin. A mission from Reporters sans frontières visited Kurgan in March 2002 and in a detailed report commented on the “numerous violations” of the investigation into the Kirsanov case.

The CJES researcher did not have access to the case materials. Kirsanov’s widow Larisa Chertova noticed a number of weaknesses during the short time she was allowed to examine the records of the investigation. Three individuals were questioned immediately after Kirsanov disappeared but others were only called in 12 weeks later later. This does not suggest there was an active investigation. The official investigators placed clear emphasis on theories that were not connected to Kirsanov’s activities as a journalist and editor.

All real estate transactions conducted by Eduard and Vladimir Kirsanov in 1991-1997, and the people involved, were examined. Every contract was seized. Yet despite this diligence the investigators did not find evidence of debts or deception of clients and partners that might be a reason for wanting to have Kirsanov killed.

When a possible link to Kirsanov’s activities as a journalist and political activist were concerned, Chertova noticed, the questioning of those involved with different political parties, and the various sponsors and the election teams, was superficial. Instead of establishing the nature of her husband’s relationships with his opponents and those who might want to see him removed from the Region’s public and political life, the investigators usually confined themselves to asking when the individual had last seen Kirsanov.

Although all Vladimir’s publications in local newspapers were tracked down the case materials contained no reference to their contents or analysis of the topics covered. The head of the internal affairs department for the Kurgan Region, Colonel Boris Timonenko, later suggested that Kirsanov had investigated and published articles since the December 2000 election that could have threatened local officials linked to crimes in the Kurgan Region and the neighbouring Sverdlovsk Region. Taking advantage of the authorities’ poor opinion of him, these officials might well have used the opportunity to get rid of the tiresome journalist. Kirsanov’s friends, fixated on the Prosto Oleg pamphlet and his other PR activities, have overlooked this possibility.