Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Moscow Protesters Remember 2009 Killings of Lawyer and Journalist

RFE/RL Russian Service

   Hundreds of Russians are marching in Moscow in a sanctioned rally to
   mark 11 years since a human rights lawyer and a journalist were gunned
   down there in broad daylight in 2009.

   Some of the participants held images of the 34-year-old lawyer
   Stanislav Markelov and 25-year-old student and Novaya Gazeta reporter
   Anastasia Baburova.

   There was a police presence aside the column of demonstrators, which
   was led by people carrying copies of the Russian Constitution and a
   funeral wreath.

   A Russian researcher for Amnesty International, Oleg Kozlovsky, shared
   an image via Twitter of police detaining one individual, but he
   suggested the man was a passerby who crossed a street illegally and
   sparked a quick police chase.

   Markelov and Baburova had defended and chronicled the plights of
   victims of right-wing nationalist excesses before their deaths in one
   of the more brazen killings of government critics in the Putin era.

   A liberal Moscow city councilor, Yuliya Galyamina, had urged
   participants to use the previously planned rally on January 19 to show
   their opposition to sweeping constitutional reforms proposed last week
   by Putin and regarded by some as a path to keep him in power beyond his
   fourth term as president.

   Some of the protesters in the January 19 march held signs urging
   greater freedom in Russian society.

   The Markelov and Baburova killings sparked accusations that the Kremlin
   was not doing enough to hunt down the attackers of activists and
   journalists.

   Two young neo-Nazis, Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, were
   convicted of the dual killings in 2011. Tikhonov was sentenced to life
   in prison for murder and Khasis to 18 years for helping him.

   Markelov had represented investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya,
   who was murdered in 2006, as well as Chechen civilians abused by
   Russian troops.