Anna Politkovskaya by Dominique Conil

Author:Dominique Conil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: reporter;Chechnya;Second Chechen War;Putin;Vladimir Putin;Russia;human rights;activism;human rights activist;journalist;Anna Polikovskaya;biography;girls;kids books ages 9-12;non fiction books for kids age 9 12;feminism;books for kids age 9 12;biography for kids;girls books ages 9-12;civil rights;books for girls;books for boys age 9 12;books for 12 year old girls;books for 8 year old boys;books for 10 year old boys;books for 10 year old girls;books for 11 year old girls
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2022-08-18T16:56:59+00:00

7

Her Name Was Elza

Will he be up to the task, this young Stanislav Markelov? A brilliant lawyer, not even thirty, and ready to do battle with the Russian courts to obtain justice. I look at this too-thin redhead coming up the path to Memorial, and ask the question out loud.

“Yes,” says Anna. “He’s very good.”

Sitting side by side on a bench, exchanging looks, she in her long coat, me in my thick jacket, we must look like a team of tired detectives. We’re working closely on this case. In the three years that Elza Kungayeva’s peaceful gaze has met ours whenever we open the file, we’ve suffered a number of defeats. Anna has written a great deal. She’s the one who started it all.

In the village of Tchangi Chou in Chechnya, people were frightened of Colonel Budanov, a career military man, always ready for a fight, depressed, a heavy drinker. On that day in 2000, he headed into the village to do battle, drunk and determined to flush out terrorists. But in the house he entered there was only a girl. Regardless, they abducted her on the colonel’s orders; she was taken to the hovel he occupied, and he shut himself up with her.

When the body of Elza Kungayeva was found, doctors concluded that she had been beaten, raped, and strangled. Is it necessary to point out that Elza had nothing even remotely to do with the rebels?

“What do you call killing people because of their ethnicity and that alone? I call it genocide,” says Anna.

From the beginning, she pursues the story. First the courts find no great harm; then, when people protest, they say that Colonel Budanov can’t be condemned. Because he’s “crazy,” not responsible. And so they mean to put him away for a while and release him quickly.

“These courts remind me of others that took orders from the government—Stalin’s,” writes Anna. “They refuse to hear witnesses and judge as they are told to by people in high places.” Then Stanislav Markelov has the idea of asking for independent and foreign experts to be brought in to assess Colonel Budanov’s mental health . . .

Today, we are waiting for the results and Stanislav’s return from Tchangi Chou. Elza’s parents, simple but determined people, continue to struggle. German psychiatrists have come and made a report and create a scandal in the Bundestag, the German parliament. And suddenly, everything is overturned . . . the colonel is condemned.

Vladimir Putin, “although he doesn’t give a damn about the opinion of his countrymen, attaches great importance to criticism against him abroad,” writes Anna, riding on the strength of this victory.

Now, as I write this, I know that death isn’t far away for me. I find it hard to walk. My breathing is labored. I spend more time on the chair near the window. I don’t get bored, I think back on those who’ve been important in my life, on important moments; it’s a film that I can replay a thousand times. Even though there is more sadness in it than anything else.

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