Ukrainian journalists honoured Anna Politkovskya’s memory

On Tuesday 10 October, on the grounds of the Russian Consulate in Lviv, representatives of the Lviv media held a minute’s silence and lit candles in memory of the Russian journalist, correspondent for “Novaya Gazeta”, Anna Politkovskya, murdered on 7 October in Moscow.

A UNIAN correspondent reports that the Consul General of the RF in Lviv Yevgeny Guzeev thanked the journalists for coming to share their grief with the Russian people for the murdered journalist.

At this the head of the Lviv Independent Media Trade Union Bohdan Kufryk stated that “journalists from the Lviv region have come to the RF Consulate since this is a small piece of Russia in Lviv”. “We hope that this will be the last killing of a journalist in Russia. It will cause a wave of protest among Russian journalists. Anna Politkovskya was linked to our country by Ukrainian roots. Her father was from the Chernihiv region, and her maiden name was Mazepa.”

On Tuesday outside the Russian Embassy in Kyiv Ukrainians lit candles in Anna Politkovskya’s memory. At 13.00  around 70 people gathered near the embassy, mainly journalists.

They brought flowers and lit candles. The participants held photos of Anna Politkovskya and copies of her book “Second Chechnya” [A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya – in English], translated into Ukrainian. Journalists read out extracts from the book, after which they placed their flowers and candles against the fence of the embassy.

A minute’s silence was held in the murdered journalist’s honour.

The Russian Embassy had a heightened police guard, however the police officers did not obstruct the memorial gathering.

In Moscow on Tuesday, at 14.30 Moscow time the funeral of Anna Politkovskaya began at the Troyekursovske Cemetery in Moscow.