Yuri Shchekochikhin

Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin (Ю́рий Петро́вич Щекочи́хин) (June 9, 1950, Kirovabad - July 3, 2003, Moscow) was a Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker of Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin made his name writing about and campaigning against the influence of organized crime and corruption. His last non-fiction book was about people who worked as KGB informers.

A journalist of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, he investigated Russian apartment bombings allegedly directed by the Russian secret services and Three Whales Corruption Scandal which involved high-rank FSB officers and was related to money laundering through the Bank of New York.

He died suddenly in July 2003 from a mysterious illness, just a few days before his scheduled depature to the United States where he planned to meet with FBI investigators. His medical documents ended up "classified" by the Russian authorities. The symptoms of his illness fit pattern of poisoning by radioactive materials and were similar to the symptoms of Nikolai Khokhlov, Roman Tsepov and Alexander Litvinenko. According to then alive Litvinenko and news reports, the death of Yuri Shchekochikhin was a politically-motivated assassination Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. "" Free Press, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652. ] .

Investigative journalism and poitical career

Shchekochikhin graduated from the Journalism Department of Moscow State University in 1975. He worked as an investigative journalist at "Komsomolskaya Pravda" (1972-1980) and "Literaturnaya Gazeta" (1980-1996), and then as a deputy editor of the liberal newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" (from 1996). Beginning in the 1990s, he published many articles critical of the Chechen Wars, human rights abuses in the Russian army, state corruption, and other social issues.

In Summer 1988 Shchekochikhin has published interview with a lieutenant colonel of militia Aleksander Gurov, in which existence of organized crime in Soviet Union was first publicly stated. That brought fame to both Gurov (who became the head of 6-th Agency of MVD of USSR which struggled against organized crime) and Shchekochikhin. [http://lenta.ru/lib/14170685/ Dossier on Shchekochikhin by Lenta.ru] (in Russian)]

Yuri Shchekochikhin began his political career in 1990, when he was elected as a representative to the Congress of People's Deputies. He was elected to the Russian State Duma from the liberal Yabloko party in 1995. He was a member of a Duma committee on the problems of corruption, and was a UN expert on the problems of organized crime. He was a vocal opponent of the Chechen Wars.

Since early 1995 he was an author and host of an investigative journalism program called "Special Team" on ORT, Russian television's first channel (that time owned by Boris Berezovsky). In October 1995 heads of the channel closed the program. According to Shchekochikhin, the reason was an episode called "For Motherland! For mafia!", which was devoted to the Chechen War unleashed in his opinion by "leading banks of Russia".

In 2000 he accused Russia's Deputy PM Ilya Klebanov of covering up the fact that Russia did not have the resources to attempt a rescue of the Kursk submarine crew. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/926105.stm]

From 2002, Shchekochikhin was a member of the Sergei Kovalev Commission, which investigated allegations that the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings had been orchestrated by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to generate support for the war [http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/107.htm] .

One of Shchekochikhin's last articles before his death was "Are we Russia or KGB of Soviet Union?" [http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2003-01-27.shtml] It described such issues as the refusal of the FSB to explain to the Russian Parliament what poison gas was applied during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, and work of secret services from the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, which operated with impunity in Moscow against Russian citizens of Turkoman origin.

He also tried to investigate the Three Whales Corruption Scandal and criminal activities of FSB officers related to money laundering through the Bank of New York and illegal actions of Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian Minister of Nuclear Energy [http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/45n/n45n-s04.shtml] [http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/45n/n45n-s00.shtml] . [http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?m=09&y=2006&id=33CC2719-2AD5-4A45-A326-72828B9BAF64 Russia: Corruption Scandal Could Shake Kremlin] - by Victor J. Yasman, REF/RL, September 26, 2006. ] The case of Three Whales was under the personal control of President Vladimir Putin [http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2003-06-02.shtml] . In June 2003, Shchekochikhin contacted the FBI and got an American visa to discuss the case with US authorities [http://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/2006/2006_06/060620_novg_shekoch.html] . However, he never made it to the USA because of his sudden death. Some Russian media claimed that Putin has issued an order to discharge 19 high-ranking FSB officers involved in this case in September 2006 as part of a Kremlin power struggle, but all these officers still continue to work in their FSB positions [http://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.114307.html] .

Death

Shchekochikhin died suddenly on July 3, 2003 after a 16 days mysterious illness [http://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/2006/2006_06/060620_novg_shekoch.html] . It was officially declared that he died from an allergic Lyell's syndrome. His medical treatment and his post-mortem took place at the Central Clinical Hospital, which is "tightly controlled by the Russian Federal Security Service because it treats top-ranking Russian officials". His relatives were denied an official medical report about the cause of his illness, and were forbidden to take specimens of his tissues to conduct an independent medical investigation [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6324241.stm] . Journalists of Novaya Gazeta managed to send his tissue specimens to "major foreign specialists". However, the experise did not produce any definite conclusion. [cite web
url=http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/82n/n82n-s05.shtml
title= АГЕНТ НЕИЗВЕСТЕН «Новая газета» настаивает на возобновлении официального расследования обстоятельств гибели Юрия Щекочихина
publisher=Novaya Gazeta
date=2006-10-30
accessdate = 2007-10-30] This caused widespread speculation about the cause of his death, especially since another member of the Kovalev commission, Sergei Yushenkov, was assassinated the same year [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2957823.stm] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2958997.stm] , and the legal counsel and investigator of the commission, Mikhail Trepashkin, was arrested by Russian authorities. [http://eng.trepashkin.ru/] [http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR460132006?open&of=ENG-2U4]

Some news reports drew parallels between the poisonings of Shchekochikhin, Alexander Litvinenko, and president Vladimir Putin’s former bodyguard Roman Tsepov, who died in a similar way in St Petersburg in September 2004. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6324241.stm "Russia's poisoning 'without a poison' " – Julian O'Halloran, BBC Radio 4, 6 February 2007] .Retrieved on 2007-07-30.] Others noted Lecha Islamov, a Chechen rebel, who died in a Russian prison in 2004. “All three cases of poisoning – of Islamov, Shchekochikhin and Litvinenko – are united not only by the clinical picture, which is identical even in terms of the details, but also by the fact that the traces of the poisoners clearly point to one address: Moscow, Lubyanka (FSB headquarters),” according to Chechenpress report written by Zelimkhan Khadzhiev. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=416&issue_id=3942&article_id=2371689 Chechen separatists eulogize Litvinenko] The Jamestown Foundation ]

Last book

Shchekochikhin's last published book was "Slaves of the KGB: 20th Century. The Religion of Betrayal", telling the real stories of some of the many people forcibly recruited by the Russian KGB (the domestic operations of which later became the FSB) to work as undercover informers or agents. These people virtually became their KGB controllers' slaves, betraying their relatives, close friends and colleagues. When he died, he had not finished working on a book about the 20th Century wars in Chechnya.

Investigation

On the request of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper staff the Investigative Committee of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia opened the investigation of his death anew on October 27, 2007. [ [http://lenta.ru/news/2007/10/29/schekochihin/ Death of Shchekochikhin to be investigated anew] , October 29, 2007 (in Russian)]

In April 2008 an RF Investiagative Committee official said that there would be another test carried out on his tissue to ascetain whether there had been a case of poisoning. [ [http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/368688.htm Mystery Shrouds Shchekochikhin's Death] The Moscow Times July 4, 2008.]

References

External links

= English =

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,994245,00.html Obituary] - "The Guardian"
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/24/europe/EU_GEN_Britan_Poisoned_Spy_Glance.php Mysterious deaths of Kremlin critics] - "International Herald Tribune"
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200401/ai_n9358369 Yuri Shchekochikhin: A Tribute] - "Demokratizatsiya"
* [http://www.rferl.org/reports/rpw/2003/07/28-160703.asp YURII SHCHEKOCHIKHIN: HOW LONG CAN ONE WRITE ABOUT THE SAME THING?] - by Virginie Coulloudon, RFE/RL, 16 July 2003.
* [http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?m=10&y=2006&id=D08564AB-85E6-4375-94AC-921638EAB299 Russia: High-Profile Killings, Attempted Killings In The Post-Soviet Period] - by REF/RL, October 19, 2006
* [http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/europe/russia30oct07na.html Prosecutors open probe into 2003 death of Moscow reporter] statement by Committee to Protect Journalists, October 30, 2007
* [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/01/29/070129fa_fact_specter?currentPage=1 Kremlin, Inc. Why are Vladimir Putin’s opponents dying?] by Michael Specter, The New Yorker, January 29, 2007
* [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aVJN1g2yitMQ&refer=us Thallium Poisons U.S. Mother, Daughter in Moscow] By Bradley Cook and Henry Meyer, Bloomberg L.P.

= Russian =

* [http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/ Site dedicated to Yuri Shchekochikhin in "Novaya Gazeta"]
* [http://www.yabloko.ru/Persons/schekoch.html Biography and publications]
* [http://www.rusglobus.net/shekochihin/index.shtml Personal site of Yuri Shekochikhin]
* [http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2003-08-11-03.shtml I have learned to always tell the truth and be afraid of nothing] interview with Yuri Shchekochikhin
* [http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2000-06-15.shtml Letters from the Presidents] Congratulations from Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin on his 50th birthday in 2000
* [http://www.echo.msk.ru/guests/7763/ Discussion about Yuri Shchekochikhin] , Echo of Moscow
* [http://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/2004/Bulletin/200401-03/bull032004044.html Last Russian Saint] by Vitaly Popov
* [http://www.svoboda.org/programs/pr/2003/pr.012003.asp Shchekochikhin about bombing of Chechen governmental building in Grozny]

Books

* [http://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/Raby/rab.html Slaves of KGB. 20th Century. The religion of betrayal (Рабы ГБ. XX век. Религия предательства)] , Moscow, 1999.

See also

* Human rights in Russia
* List of journalists killed in Russia
* Artyom Borovik
* Alexander Litvinenko
* Anna Politkovskaya
* Galina Starovoitova
* Sergei Yushenkov