Freedom House, a prominent NGO that monitors and assesses the level of civil and political rights and freedoms in the world, downgraded Russia’s status in 2004 from Partly Free to Not Free. This is part of the legacy of Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia. Another part of the legacy has been the dramatic number of journalists killed in Russia over the last decade. Most of these journalists had either been working on, or had reported stories about, corruption in the government and business elite.
Here is the report from Euronews about the latest Russian journalist to be killed:
A Russian journalist has been assassinated in Moscow. Ilias Shurpaiev, who worked for the state-run Channel One, was found dead in his flat. He had apparently being strangled with a belt and suffered stab wounds. Shurpaeiv, a native of the mostly Muslim Dagestan province, was the author of several reports on the Caucusus region.
More than a dozen journalists have been killed in contract-style killings in Russia since 2000.
Clouds, Clocks, and Sitting at Tables 