Moscow - Opposition activists and human rights defenders
plan to rally in Moscow in memory of the murder of investigative
journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya - gunned down in
front of her home one year ago on Sunday.
A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, Politkovskaya had won
international acclaim for her reporting of human rights abuses
against civilians in war-torn Chechnya.
For Russia's beleaguered opposition groups, her death in a
contract-style killing has come to symbolize the lack of civil
liberties and safety of government critics under Putin's rule.
Former Prime Minister and opposition activist Mikhail Kasyanov has
called for supporters of his party to gather at mid-day for a
Dissenters' March from Pushkin square.
Using what rights groups have described as bullying tactics,
authorities have increasingly cracked down on the wave of Dissenters'
Marches held across Russia to call for a fair vote leading into the
December parliamentary and March presidential elections.
Moscow city hall has granted permission for the march, but only
for 500 of the 2,000 expected participants, said Kasyanov's
spokeswoman Tatyana Razbash. She said she did not anticipate
authorities allowing a march away from the square.
Meanwhile, The Other Russia, a coalition of opposition groups that
Kasyanov left earlier this year, planned to meet at a different
Moscow location two hours later.
Former chess champion and Putin critic Garry Kasparov is scheduled
to lay flowers in front of Politkovskaya's house later in the day,
his spokeswoman Lyudimila Mamina said.
On Saturday, police detained five Western rights activists and
interrogated organizers of a memorial conference for Politkovskaya in
the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 250 miles east of Moscow. The conference
was cancelled after organizer's funds were frozen by authorities.
The five activists including three Spaniards, a Briton and a
German employee of Amnesty International were released later in the
day.
Police had suspected the foreigners of a routine violation of
registration regulations, a regional police spokesman was quoted by
Interfax as saying.
But the conference organizer complained that the detention was
part an official intimidation campaign to stop the meeting, where
participants planned to discuss the investigation of Politkovskaya's
murder and the state of journalism in Russia today.
The state-run newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta also on Saturday
reported that a Ukrainian mafia boss had been detained in connection
with Politkovskaya's murder.
Ten alleged members of a Chechen criminal group, including four
law-enforcement officers and a member of the state security service,
were arrested in connection with Politkovskaya's death in late
August.
On September 24, the former head of a district in Chechnya was
also detained as an accomplice in organizing the murder.
Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika had hailed the arrests as
major breakthroughs in the investigation to charge Politkovskaya's
murderers.
But suspicion that the Kremlin could be linked with her death have
only grown deeper as several suspects have had alibis and have been
freed.
Politkovskaya was one of 13 journalists slain in contract-style
killings in Russia since Putin came to office in 2000, according to
the non-governmental Committee to Protect Journalists based in New
York.
No suspects have yet been charged in Politkovskaya's murder.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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