Twenty years ago, on 7 October 2006, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered at the instigation of Russian security services. This is an op-ed by documentary filmmaker Eric Bergkraut, who knew her well, recalling her fight for truth and against Kremlin propaganda – a struggle that is more necessary than ever as Vladimir Putin continues to kill.
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In the Moscow newsroom of Novaya Gazeta, she would wait to see whether editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov would approve her latest article, whether she had gone too far for a newspaper that, as early as 2004, lived in constant fear of being shut down by the authorities. That was the situation, and yet it felt as if not everything was lost. Who could have imagined that, 20 years later, Putin would still be in power and waging a war that would cost hundreds of thousands of lives?
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After Anna's murder, Putin claimed he was not responsible and that her death did him more harm than all the articles she had written against him. The truth is that Putin cares only about staying in power. For that, he needs war. The individual, whether man or woman, counts for nothing.
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The powerful can control everything except human conscience, Anna believed. She lived through and described how dictatorship corrodes a society. Vladimir Putin has been committing war crimes for more than a quarter-century. Films, books and articles on the subject have never been lacking. Yet, in the early 2000s, the leaders of Western European democracies were not interested. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder fraternized with Putin; the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany was launched; President Jacques Chirac awarded Putin the Légion d'honneur. Schröder and Chirac cited supposed national interests; the dismantling of democracy did not concern them, let alone human rights abuses. A grave mistake: There is a direct link between the indulgence shown to the autocrat at that time and today's battlefields.
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Anna Politkovskaya was always allergic to empty rhetoric. Twenty years after her assassination, the best tribute to her would be to help those suffering from this new war, regardless of their nationality. We could also bring the Russian autocrat, who dreams of ruling forever, to realize that his reign is nearing its end. Today's European leaders have a chance to show they are wiser than their predecessors. Seeing Vladimir Putin celebrate a birthday behind bars – now, that would be something.
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