REGNUM Information Agency

On

in Moscow a vigil was held, dedicated to the memory of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. This August 30^th she would have been 49 years old. According to a report by a correspondent for REGNUM IA, several hundred individuals participated in the gathering, including representatives of the youth organizations “Defense” and “We”, as well as the Pacifist Club. Numerous human rights organizations were the organizers of the assembly.

Participants honored the memory of Anna Politkovskaya with a minute of silence, and, during the course of the meeting, human rights advocates and leaders of the (anti-Putin) opposition parties spoke, as did several ordinary citizen – readers of Politkovskaya articles. Among those speaking: the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Ludmilla Alekseeva, leader of the United Civil Front Gary Kasparov, member of parliament Vladimir Ryzhkov, leader of the Other Russia Party Eduard Limonov, leader of the Movement for Human Rights Lev Ponomarev, member of the federal political council for the Union of Right Forces Aleksey Kara-Murza, and many others. In his speech, former priest Gleb Yakunin blamed the death of Politkovskaya on “those who are trying to create a totalitarian regime in Russia”. He concluded: “But the blood of martyrs will destroy any totalitarian regime. Anna is in the Celestial Kingdom, and we can expect her spiritual help.”

“The silence that began after her death, this was the cry of our indifference,” emphasized Roman Dobrokhotov, the leader of the “We” youth movement. “And those who are silent are accessories to her death.”

At the end of the meeting Anna Karetnikova, an activist from the Pacifist Club, reminded everyone that at the present time a situation that would not have escaped the attention of Anna Politkovskaya was developing. She was speaking about the detention of Andrey Kalenov and Denis Zelenyuk, anarchists from St. Petersburg who were accused of organizing the bombing of the Nevsky Express. Among the participants at the meeting were some Moscow anarchists who distributed leaflets stating that the young men were innocent. “These boys are pacifists,” Karetnikova declared. “They’ve stood in picket lines against the war in Chechnya. Pacifists don’t blow up trains.”

The meeting ended without excesses, although, according to information from a correspondent of REGNUM IA, law-enforcement officers ticketed meeting organizer Andrey Naleta because the number of participants at the meeting exceeded the number declared on his permit. At the present time participants from the meeting were heading in small groups to Anna Politkovskaya’s house on

http://www.regnum.ru/news/878150.html

to lay flowers in the stairwell where the journalist was murdered.

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