More Putin critics killed off

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/russian_journal.html

Russian Journalist Dies in Suspicious Fall From Window


March 05, 2007 12:15 AM
Rhonda Schwartz Reports:

Respected Russian journalist Ivan Safronov, who reported on military affairs, mysteriously plunged to his death from the 5th floor of his apartment building Friday, making him the 14th journalist to die under questionable circumstances in Putin's Russia, according to statistics compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"They killed Ivan. They killed Ivan," said a distraught former U.S. intelligence staffer familiar with Safronov when he learned the news today. "Another Russian journalist is dead. Ivan fell out of the window with his coat and hat on? Come on," said the former official who frequently visits Moscow and asked to remain anonymous.

Last October, Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building as she unloaded groceries just days before she was scheduled to publish a story about the use of torture by Chechnyan officials.

Polikovskaya's killing, the 13th since Putin took office, led the Committee to Protect Journalists to declare Russia "the third deadliest country in the world for journalists" after Iraq and Algeria in their recent report, "Deadly News." All of the cases remain unsolved.


more at the link...

bush was probably comparing Putin's character to his own horrendous, vile presence.

How often do you think people 'accidentally' fall out of windows from great height?

Not often unless you are in Russia. And evidently your chances go way up if you are a journalist.

Must be some kind of defect in the way journalists are trained there, like 'be sure to lean against a window when asking questions..."