The awards ceremony was held at the House of the European Union in Vienna.

“The factors that determined the jury’s decision were distinct courage in investigative journalism, the democratic significance of the articles, and also Mikhail Beketov’s personal fate,” said Rubina Mering, president of the Austrian branch of the organization.

Thirty-five pieces of journalistic works from a dozen Russian regions were presented to the jury altogether, mostly from the printed media but also from radio and television programs.

The jury was made up of representatives from several international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and UNESCO.

Mikhail Beketov, Editor-in-Chief of the opposition newspaper Khimkinskaya Pravda, was an active opponent of a controversial highway construction project between Moscow and St. Petersburg through the Khimki Forest. In a 2008 interview on REN-TV, he accused Khimki Mayor Vladimir Strelchenko of setting his car on fire. The mayor sued him for slander, and although a court convicted Beketov last month, the sentence has since been overturned. Also in 2008, the journalist was severely beaten by two unknown assailants, leaving him wheelchair bound, unable to speak, and with three amputated fingers.

Olga Bobrova has been a journalist with the outspoken opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta since 2002. Following the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004, Bobrova began to focus on the North Caucasus in her journalistic work. She has since continued to work in the critical tradition of Novaya Gazeta and its most well-known journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered four years ago.

The suit against Khimkinskaya Pravda Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Beketov was filed by Khimki Mayor Vladimir Strelchenko. Strelchenko’s name has reappeared in the news over the past few days as a possible suspect in Kashin’s assault. He had sued Beketov for slander following an interview on REN-TV, in which the journalist accused the mayor of setting his car on fire.

“I see it as political terror, where Strelchenko came out and ordered the attack,” Beketov said at the time.

As the New York Times points out, the journalist had been a longtime critic of the Khimki city administration, including in regards to controversial construction plans for a highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg that would have cut down a large swath of the Khimki Forest. Days after calling for the resignation of the city’s leadership in Spring 2008, Beketov’s car was blown up. Then, that November, the journalist was beaten by unknown attackers and permanently disabled. No arrests have been made in either case.

On Wednesday, a judge in the Khimki Magistrate Court convicted Beketov of slander against Strelchenko and sentenced him to a fine of about $170.

“Beketov was sentenced to a fine of five thousand rubles,” the journalist’s lawyer, Andrei Stoblunov, told Kasparov.ru. “Considering that the statute of limitations is up, he won’t be paying the fine.”

Still, Stoblunov said he plans to appeal the decision on the basis that the article of Russia’s criminal code used to persecute Beketov is being used inappropriately by the authorities. “If article 129 is going to be used further against society, it will signal the death knell of the war against corruption,” he charged.

Wednesday’s sentencing was notable because it was the first out of three hearings where Mayor Strelchenko actually appeared in the courtroom. The court turned down his charges on two previous occasions when the mayor simply did not show up. According to several media sources, Strelchenko had urged Beketov to settle the case.

For his part, Beketov appeared at each of the court hearings, despite his disability – the journalist was forced to rent a special truck and hire emergency medical personnel to attend each session.

Attacks on journalists are far from rare in Russia, and so is impunity. While suspects often abound, 94% of murder cases have never been resolved. Writing for Yezhednevny Zhurnal, noted journalist Yulia Latynina lays out the most likely perpetrators of Kashin’s brutal attack.

Kashin – Who Ordered the Attack?
By Yulia Latynina
November 8, 2010
Yezhednevny Zhurnal

The attack on Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin is notable for the fact that, like in an Agatha Christie novel, its circle of suspects is finite and small.

The first suspect is Khimki Mayor and Afghan war veteran Strelchenko. The same thing happens to all of Strelchenko’s opponents – their skulls get broken. Exactly two years ago, they broke the skull of Mikhail Beketov; on the anniversary of Beketov’s beating, they broke the skull of Khimki Right Cause leader Fetisov, and a day later – Oleg Kashin.

What do we have here in Khimki, Chechnya? Who is Mayor Strelchenko – Ramzan Kadyrov?

The second suspect is the manager of the Federal Agency for Youth Matters, a close associate of Surkov, the spiritual leader of the Putinjugend – Vasily Yakemenko.

In August 2010, Kashin uncovered and expanded upon an unappetizing story about Yakemenko.

A young girl attending Seliger, Anastasia Korchevskaya, decided to promote herself by bragging about her proximity to the top command, and posted a photo of herself with Yakemenko online with the caption: “Seliger 2008. Yakemenko still thinks I’m madly in love with him.” Yakemenko commented in response: “Korchevskaya, if you came to me two times at night in my tent, it doesn’t mean I think you’re in love with me.”

The page was then deleted, but Kashin managed to make a screenshot and generally did everything possible to expand upon the story. It turned out that Yakemenko not only uses his authority to sleep with schoolchildren, but he also brags on LiveJournal that he screws them in tents. Kashin is not a simple person; he has cooperated with the Kremlin on multiple occasions (it is only worth nothing how he insisted that Private Sychev’s legs fell off on their own accord), and his position could be seen not just as the position of an enemy, but worse – the position of a traitor.

To declare Kashin to be an enemy of the people as a result of this issue was awkward. In the pedofuhrer’s place, it was worth it to wait and latch onto some other one of Kashin’s writings. And, for sure, when Kashin did an interview for Kommersant with the head of the antifascists who were rampaging against the Khimki administration, the Young Guard website, which is under Yakemenko’s jurisdiction, came out with an article entitled “Journalist-traitors (my emphasis – Y.L.) must be punished!”

In the interview with Anonymous (an unprecedented step that Kommersant went ahead with the publication of an anonymous interview, but that’s just it – Anonymous’s name is well known), Khimki is called “absolute evil,” and Strelchenko – “a bandit from the 90s.” But the most important thing is that Anonymous marked the beginning of “a new level of social evolution in our country.” The very existence of these kinds of youth movements, capable of instantaneous organization, self-sacrifice, and going to prison, and the enthusiasm with which the anarchists were greeted by Khimki residents who happened along their path, was a threat to the status and the money that people who love to screwing schoolchildren in Seliger are accustomed to.

And this came through very clearly in the Young Guard article. The article ended like this: “We cannot be under the thumb of information extremists. They are enemies, and that means they will be punished.”

Punished – how? Here is just a shortened list of beatings whose authors have never been found. The epidemic of beatings of Polish diplomats, the beating of Marina Litvinovich (“You need to be more careful, Marina!” she was told by one of the men who was standing nearby when she woke up), the beating of Lev Ponomarev. The murder of antifascists; the investigation of their connections with the Kremlin needs to look at the organizations Russian Verdict and Russian Image, which were joined by Nikita Tikhomirov and Yevgeniya Khasis – the presumed murderers of Markelov and Baburova.

Finally, we mustn’t fail to mention the third candidate. Oleg Kashin is extremely well known as the creator of the expression “sh!tty Turchak,” referring to the governor of Pskovskaya Oblast, former coordinator of youth policy for United Russia, Seliger guest and son of Putin’s friend – Andrei Turchak.

The writing on Kashin’s blog, however, was not about Turchak, but about Kaliningrad Governor Boos: “Compare him with any governor, not even with Ramzan and not with Tuleyev, with any sh!tty Turchak – is this Boos uncompromising?” – wrote Kashin.

If you think about the tone used on the Internet, the remark can be seen almost as innocent: but the son of Putin’s friend suddenly personally demanded that Kashin “apologize within 24 hours,” and then even took the time to call a press conference, where he called Kashin’s retort “informational trash.” “Now I know what kind of person this is, he is not a journalist as I understand it.”

I mention Andrei Turchak, by the way, for the completeness of the list: since, although the epithet “sh!tty Turchak” is now stuck with the former coordinator of youth policy for United Russia, this whole story looks more like a routine dirty internet fight than anything else. As opposed to the stories of Strelchenko and Yakemenko.

And so, like in an Agatha Christie novel, the list of suspects has been defined, and there is no chance that the crime was committed by the yardkeeper on the side. Interrogations on this case need to be carried out on Khimki Mayor Strelchenko, youth movement leader Vasily Yakemenko, and Governor Andrei Turchak. In the best case scenario, there will be talk about a semi-independent initiative by some kind of fascist organizations who were upset about the interview with Anonymous. But it’s most likely that one of these two, and not three – either Strelchenko or Yakemenko – decided that he would get away with everything. And let’s note: all of this is connected to Khimki in one way or another.

And another thing. Yes, I understand that there is more than one suspect. But, in my view, it is stupid to walk around with signs saying “find the criminals” and “take measures,” refraining from naming the suspects. If you guys are going to ask them to “find the criminals,” then they’re going to respond “we’re looking.” Gelman deserves honor and praise for writing that he thinks Yakemenko is behind the attack.

Translation by theotherrussia.org

Beketov, 50, has been receiving treatment at the Sklifosovsky Institute, a leading emergency hospital, but was moved into the intensive care unit Friday, Chirikova said. Relatives and friends were planning to have the journalist transferred to the Burdenko hospital, she added.

“We associate the worsening [of his condition] with the inadequate care he received in the ward where he was held,” Chirikova said.

Beketov, who was hospitalized with trauma to the head and brain, was attacked so violently that he had to have his right leg and the fingers on his left hand amputated. He was initially in a coma, but regained consciousness on November 27th. An operation to remove skull fragments from his brain was postponed, as doctors were concerned that he may not recover from surgery.

Beketov published and edited the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, which was known for exposing corruption and criticizing the municipal administration of Khimki, the Moscow suburb where he lives. Recently, the newspaper teamed up with environmentalists fighting to protect a large swath of forest slated for a controversial and expensive Moscow-St. Petersburg superhighway. Each issue published an investigative article on the subject.

Before his assault, Beketov had been threatened over the phone to keep quiet or face the consequences. Unknown men killed his dog. His car was blown up.

Since the attack, the hospital where Beketov was held received calls promising to “finish [him] off.”

Yet the investigation into his assault has been marked by apathy on the part of police, who were at first reluctant to link the attack with Beketov’s professional work. After a wide public resonance, the investigation was transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and it was reported that Prosecutor General Yury Chaika was personally keeping tabs on the case.

Since then, a former police officer turned criminal has been implicated as a suspect and sought for questioning.

The journalist, who publishes the Khimkinskaya Pravda (Khimki Truth) newspaper, was taken in an unconscious state to a city hospital, where his condition remains extremely serious. Beketov sustained a head injury, multiple broken bones, and other injuries that doctors said could easily have been fatal.

Mikhail Beketov is well known for his critical articles against local authorities in Khimki. His paper has raised issues like the the transfer of an airmen hero monument, and the battle to save a section of the Khimki forest.

Beketov’s articles apparently raised the ire of authorities. In May of 2007, unknown perpetrators detonated his car, and in February, a criminal case was launched against him for alleged libel. The editor has also said that threats were made against his life.

—

Mikhail Beketov, speaking with Ekho Moskvy Radio on May 24, 2007

The last issue of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper was powerful, and we demanded the resignation of the current authorities. We were saying that they disgraced the country, disgraced Khimki, disgraced our memory, our past. After the last issue, where we published information about the hideousness happening during the exhumation, when we published photographs of the bones that they found in the graves; I was threatened.

Today, in the fourth hour of morning, I heard a noise, and ran out to my yard: a shadow darted behind the garage, and a car was burning behind it. They burned my car. I understand that this was a warning from the local administration.