Will Russian President Dmitry Medvedev "Watch Over" Journalist's Murder Investigation?

Novaya Gazeta's Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Muratov (left) and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (right) are shown on 5-30-07 at Gorbachev's Foundation in Moscow. They are presenting the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya's book Why. Anna was shot to death in her apartment on October 7, 2006.

Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty (1-29-09) reports:

"Novaya gazeta," which is partly owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and businessman Aleksandr Lebedev, is a rare publication in Russia these days. An independent national newspaper with its own highly popular website, it has become famous for its daring investigative reporting.

Several of the newspaper's reporters have paid the highest price. The latest was 25-year-old Anastasia Baburova, who was shot in central Moscow on January 19 alongside human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, in still-unexplained circumstances.

Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of "Novaya gazeta" was invited to the Kremlin on January 29 by President Dmitry Medvedev and spoke to RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Andrei Shary about the meeting...[See body of text]

RFE/RL: What is the result that you expect from this meeting?

Muratov: Of course, practically speaking, what I expect from this meeting is that the president will watch over the investigations of the killings of our staff members: [Igor] Domnikov's killing, whose masterminds have not been identified, Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, as well as Stanislav [Markelov] and Anastasia [Baburova]. And it seemed to me that that was the decision he made. Of course, he didn't say that to me or to Gorbachev, but that is how I understood his interest in this matter.