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07/16/2010

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Russia this week was brief. She was in the country for a mere 24 hours, taking part in joint German-Russian cabinet consultations in Yekaterinburg. Yet despite the brevity of the stopover, Merkel still found time to work in a query about the status of the investigation into the 2009 murder of Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova.

Medvedev's answer came surprisingly promptly. It is "incorrect to say that there is no investigation," Medvedev said. He said the case was being pursued energetically and that "the killer has been precisely identified" and that "an international search" for the perpetrator was underway.

That, say former colleagues of Estemirova, is unlikely. Arseni Roginski, head of the human rights organization Memorial, where Estemirova was working at the time of her death, said the Russian president is apparently in possession of "inexact information."

A recent report in the Moscow daily Novaya Gazeta would seem to support such skepticism. The paper reported that investigators now claim that Estemirova was murdered by a Chechen fighter named Alkhazur Bashayev. But questioning the suspect is impossible; Bashayev was killed by Russian security forces at the end of last November.

'A Little Too Quickly'

"Medvedev apparently spoke a little too quickly," Alexander Cherkassov, a Memorial spokesman, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Estemirova was kidnapped from her home in Grozny on July 15, 2009 and her bullet-ridden body was found a short time later. At the time of her death, she was investigating sensitive human rights abuses in Chechnya. The BBC has reported that she was looking into torture and extrajudicial killings perpetrated by both Russian troops and Chechen paramilitary groups. The Kremlin-appointed president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, referred to Estemirova as a "woman without honor or shame" shortly after her death. But Medvedev expressed horror at the murder and promised an in depth investigation.

Initially, the investigation proceeded apace, Elena Milashina, a Novaya Gazeta reporter who has been following the case, told British newspaper the Guardian this month. "But then it froze," she adds.

Cherkassov told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the accusations which have been leveled at the dead Chechen fighter Bashayev are unconvincing. Investigators theorize that Bashayev took revenge for critical reports written by Estemirova, and have ceased looking into other possible explanations. "Everything seems very staged, as though they want to pin the blame on a dead man."

'Enemy of the People'

Critics point out that Estemirova never wrote specifically about Bashayev. They also say that investigators have declined to pursue other obvious leads. DNA samples of three men, for example, were found under Estemirova's finger nails, but efforts to find out who that DNA might belong to have been insufficient, say many.

The Kremlin refused to comment on whether Medvedev's comments to Merkel about an international search were in reference to Bashayev. "We don't know the details," is all the press spokesperson would say.

Russian human rights activists in general, and those from Memorial in particular, continue to suspect that Kadyrov was behind the killing. He has vehemently denied any involvement. He has not, though, been shy about voicing his disdain for Memorial. The organization is, he recently said, "an enemy of the people, the law and the state."