– The bullet hole was still in the wall. No one had taken it upon themselves to cover it up. One day someone had pushed a flower into it.
That’s what it says Vera Politkovskaya. He is a journalist who was murdered in Russia in 2006 Anna Politkovskaya daughter.
Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in the stairwell of an apartment building in Moscow. The traces were still visible long after the death.
Vera Politkovskaja has written a book about her mother. It will be published in Finnish today, Saturday. The second author of the book is an Italian journalist Sara Giudice.
In an interview with , Politkovskaja says that she wrote the book because she wanted people to know more about her mother than her tragic death.
Politkovskaya was an investigative journalist who gained fame for her books. He criticized Putin’s administration and its actions in, for example, the war in Chechnya.
Politkovskaya’s murder has been linked to a series of deaths in which dozens of people critical of the Russian leadership have died under suspicious circumstances Vladimir Putin during the presidency.
Five men were convicted of Politkovskaya’s murder in 2014. Considered the mastermind of the murder Lom-Ali Gaitukaev died in prison in 2017. According to the daughter’s recent book, Anna Politkovskaya’s own mother thought the Chechen leader was the one who ordered the murder Ramzan Kadyrov.
Vera Politkovskaya does not name the person who ordered the murder.
– I am not ready to name specific people, but it is quite clear that there are high-ranking people in Russia behind his murder, says Vera Politkovskaja.
According to him, those who ordered the murder are still alive and in power. He believes that the name of the person who ordered the murder would be known if he was not someone in power.
Escape from Russia
At the time of the murder, Vera Politkovskaya was 26 years old and expecting a child. A daughter was born, who was named after her grandmother.
Moments before her death, Anna Politkovskaya had given her daughter a large sum of money to take care of the baby, as if preparing for her fate, writes Politkovskaya in her book.
When writing the book, thinking about the events related to my mother’s death was difficult, says Vera Politkovskaja.
– Writing required reliving it all. I wouldn’t wish the same on anyone, says Politkovskaja.
Vera Politkovskaya left her home country with her own daughter when Russia invaded Ukraine. The teenage daughter Anna had been teased at school because of her name, and after the war started, the naming got worse.
The teenage girl had also dared to say her opinion about the war in Ukraine.
Vera Politkovskaja is a journalist by profession, like her mother. He saw how censorship in Russia stifled journalists’ ability to do their work.
– It was clear to me that soon I would either be fired or leave myself.
In her book, Vera Politkovskaja also describes how scary it felt to leave. The border guards checked the papers for a long time, but finally let the Politkovskayas through the border. The family now lives in Europe.
Politkovskaya would like to return to Russia, but only after the power has changed.
– It’s hard to even imagine when the conditions would call for a return.
In her book, Vera Politkovskaya tells how “blind nationalism” and “seeming patriotism” in Russia disgust her.
Politkovskaya’s legacy lives on somewhere
The daughter says that Anna Politkovskaja was a passionate journalist who tapped on her typewriter late into the night. The daughter reveals that the mother was also a good cook and loved the family’s pet dogs.
– He was a rather closed person. Nobody really knew what kind of life he led outside of work, says Vera Politkovskaja.
Anna Politkovskaya, who strongly criticized the Kremlin, wrote regularly about Chechnya. She wrote several books, but the daughter does not consider any of them to be her mother’s main work.
– The most important thing in his work were the people he wrote about, says Politkovskaja.
– In every story he wrote, the fate of a person was at the center.
Because of her good contacts, Anna Politkovskaya was a negotiator in the 2002 Moscow theater hijacking, where 130 hostages died.
Chechen rebels took an audience of 800 people hostage at the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. The rebels demanded that the Russian leadership end the war in Chechnya.
Vera Politkovskaja says in her book that her mother got negotiated water for the people imprisoned in the theater. The hijacking finally ended with Russian police special forces storming the theater three days later. They shot all 41 hijackers.
Vera Politkovskaya thinks it is possible that one day there will be journalists like her mother again in Russia.
– I believe they will come. Of course, that will still take a long time, says Politkovskaja.
What thoughts does the article evoke? The topic can be discussed until Sunday, October 8 at 11 p.m.