Medvedev explains his silence on murders of Markelov and Baburova

On January 29, in the Kremlin, President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev met Dmitri Muratov, editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", and Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR and a co-owner of the newspaper.

The President conveyed his words of condolence to the families of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalists Anastasiya Baburova, who were assassinated in Moscow and explained his long silence on these resonant crimes by his unwillingness to affect the course of inquiry.

According to Dmitri Muratov, in the beginning of the meeting with Russian President, Mikhail Gorbachev named "a mistake that the President of the country had not immediately condoled and characterized the tragedy."

"Dmitri Medvedev said that he had expressed his personal condolences, but he would not like to express any opinions, which could be regarded as pressure," Dmitri Muratov continued. "He noted that one could not remain in piece, when such tragedies happen with young and clever people."

"In the talk with the President, we discussed the status and ways of progress of the society in modern Russia, in particular, the situation with journalism," Mr Muratov said on air of the "Echo Moskvy" Radio Station. "We also touched on the situation with fascist groupings in the country."

"Certainly we spoke also about actual absence in the country of the pardon institute, and that not a single inmate was pardoned in 2007," Dmitri Muratov has added. "It should concern not only Bakhmina, not only Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, but them as well. We also spoke about corruption."

"The President also said that there are no special grounds to love the 'Novaya Gazeta', but the paper should be respected for criticizing the authorities," the "Interfax" quotes Muratov as saying.

"Besides, we also discussed more global issues. For example, that Stalin is regarded here as 'an efficient manager'. President Medvedev immediately and unconditionally supported the idea of erecting in Moscow of a memorial to victims of political repressions with the help of efforts of Gorbachev, Lebedev, Ernst Neizvestny, Society "Memorial" and Russian intellectuals," said Dmitri Muratov in his interview to Radio Liberty.

"We also said that the customers in the case of our correspondent Igor Domnikov are still at large, although the killers are in prison, and the customers are known. The President put down my request. As to the murder of Anna [Politkovskaya, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"], Dmitri Medvedev, as far as I understood, is very closely watching the case," the journalist noted in his interview to the "Gazeta.Ru".

The "Caucasian Knot" has informed that every fifth Russian citizen thinks that the murders of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova were backed by "corrupted bureaucrats, threatened by independent investigations," while more than half of the respondents have not heard about these murders at all. These are the results of the poll held by employees of the "Levada Centre".