INVESTIGATORS yesterday said they had solved one of Russia’s most notorious killings and had arrested a man and a woman for the murders of the human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Anastasia Baburova.
Markelov – a friend of the assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya – and Baburova were gunned down in January in central Moscow. They had been walking towards the metro when a hitman shot Markelov in the back of the head. Baburova may have tried to grab the assassin and was also shot, dying in hospital.
Yesterday, Russia’s federal security service (FSB) named their killers as Eugenia Khasis (24) and Nikita Tikhonov (29). While Ms Khasis appears to have no previous convictions, Mr Tikhonov is a veteran neo-Nazi activist wanted in connection with the murder of an anti-fascist campaigner.
President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to improve Russia’s dismal human rights record following a string of unsolved killings of human rights workers and reporters.
The head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, took the rare step of personally briefing Mr Medvedev about yesterday’s arrests – claiming the killer had confessed.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, the two suspects worked in tandem. Ms Khasis allegedly acted as a “spotter”, trailing Markelov and Baburova from Moscow’s independent press centre. Tipped off, Mr Tikhonov was then alleged to have shot them using a silencer-fitted pistol. Yesterday however, friends of the murdered lawyer and journalist urged caution. – (Guardian service)