The Kremlin has long regarded Russia's campaigning anti-war reporter Anna Politkovskaya as a thorn in its side but she is now a key mediator attempting to persuade Chechen rebels to release the hostages.
The hostage-takers specifically asked for Politkovskaya, a prize-winning journalist known for her hard-hitting exposes of human rights abuses in Chechnya, to join the team of negotiators. Politkovskaya (43), a reporter with the Novaya Gazeta spoke to the rebels by telephone before entering the Moscow theatre where they are holding their captives.
The reporter, whose articles have drawn widespread sympathy for the plight of Chechnya's civilians, flew back to Russia from New York where she was to receive the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation on Thursday.
Politkovskaya's repute as a fearlessly outspoken reporter could prove a vital asset as much of Russia's media are wary of challenging the Kremlin's stance on its war in Chechnya.
Dubbed by her Western colleagues as "Russia's lost moral conscience", Politkovskaya is the leading anti-war voice in Russia, consistently returning to Chechnya to provide further coverage of its beleaguered civilians despite death threats and repeated arrests by Russian security forces.
She has accused the Russian military of arbitrary executions, corruption, setting up detention centres and demanding money from the families of Chechens held there in exchange for their release, as well as allowing torture at the centres.
- (AFP)