(RSF/IFEX) – On 29 May 2002, RSF called on Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to thoroughly investigate the murder of Alexander Plotnikov, co-owner of the Tumen, Siberia-based regional daily newspaper “Gostini dvor”. Plotnikov was shot dead on 20 May. “Because so many journalists have been killed in Russia recently as a result of their work, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 29 May 2002, RSF called on Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to thoroughly investigate the murder of Alexander Plotnikov, co-owner of the Tumen, Siberia-based regional daily newspaper “Gostini dvor”. Plotnikov was shot dead on 20 May. “Because so many journalists have been killed in Russia recently as a result of their work, we ask you to see to it that a serious and timely inquiry is made into whether [Plotnikov’s] death was linked to articles he published, even though at first glance it may seem that it was due to a financial dispute among the newspaper’s owners,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Ustinov.
Investigators believe the murder was carried out by hired killers. A short time earlier, the newspaper’s other owners had switched all of “Gostini dvor”‘s shares into their own bank accounts and started proceedings to shut down the newspaper. Plotnikov had won a court case against them and was trying to recuperate his shares with the help of bailiffs. The other owners had already refused to allow him to enter their offices and on 20 May, the day he was killed with a Makarov pistol, he was about to make another attempt to do so.
