BRIEFS

–PROSECTUORS WANT 7 YEARS FOR PRO-SEPARATIST JOURNALIST

Prosecutors are demanding a seven-year prison sentence for Boris Stomakhin, editor of Radikalnaya politika and a contributing author to the pro-separatist Kavkaz-Center website, who is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and extremism in articles he wrote criticizing the Kremlin’s policy in Chechnya, the Associated Press reported on November 15, citing RIA Novosti. Stomakhin has been in custody since his arrest in March.

–MASKHADOV’S SON TALKS TO A RUSSIAN WEEKLY

Anzor Maskhadov, the son of the slain Chechen separatist leader, told the weekly newspaper Sobesednik that his main task is to retrieve the body of his father for burial, Newsru.com reported on November 16. “We even appealed to [Russian Orthodox Patriarch] Aleksei II for help – all religions call for burying a person. We will continue to fight in court for the transfer of my father’s body, though we understand that they will probably not return him because, we were told, he is a symbol of resistance; people will gather at his gravesite. But for us it is not acceptable for people to gather at graves; only relatives go there. If I could bury him, I wouldn’t tell anybody where. I’m afraid they would disinter him. There have been many such cases. My uncle was killed, and only we know where he’s buried. But the Russian side is still looking for his body.” The younger Maskhadov said he pitied Ramzan Kadyrov. “I feel sorry for him for choosing this path,” he told Sobesednik. “He may be murdered, like Kadyrov the elder. Possibly even by his own people.” According to Sobesednik, the interview with Anzor Maskhadov took place in an unidentified European city.

–CHECHEN POLICE FIRE ON CAR FULL OF WOMEN

Chechen police manning a checkpoint in Achkoi-Martan shot up a car carrying four women, one of them aged 70, the Regnum news agency reported on November 13. The four women were wounded and the car’s driver was killed. The policemen said that they had fired because the driver had not heeded their orders to stop. However, a source told Regnum that the shooting took place as the car passed through the checkpoint and that the policemen should have been able to see who was inside.

–LITVINENKO CLAIMS POISONING

Aleksandr Litvinenko, the former FSB officer who was granted asylum in Britain, says that he might have been poisoned by a man who gave him documents containing the name of an individual who might have been connected to the murder of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the St. Petersburg Times reported on November 14. The BBC on November 11 quoted Litvinenko as saying that he met the man and took the documents from him at a London restaurant on November 1. Several hours later, Litvinenko said, he felt sick and was hospitalized with symptoms suggestive of poisoning. The former FSB officer said that he would hand over the documents to police and to Politkovskaya’s newspaper, Novaya gazeta, upon his recovery.