GROZNY, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - The prime minister of Chechnya said Wednesday he had no grounds to persecute journalist Anna Politkovskaya, killed last week in Moscow.
Politkovskaya, 48, known for her staunch criticism of the Kremlin and its military campaign in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment block in Moscow last Saturday. She also criticized pro-Kremlin Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov's policies, and often said he should be 'in the dock' instead of in his current post.
"Politkovskaya's works never disturbed me at all, did not affect my work, but on the contrary helped me, and I have never had a reason to persecute her," Kadyrov said.
Kadyrov was appointed the prime minister of Chechnya last November. Politkovskaya accused him in her works of kidnappings and brutal murders in Chechnya.
Kadyrov added he was accustomed that Chechnya is blamed for every incident that occurs in Russia.
"If a gas canister explodes, people start looking for a 'Chechen trace', and we are accustomed to it. But I believe we must stop making baseless accusations," he said.
The violent death of Politkovskaya, laid to rest in Moscow Tuesday, prompted world leaders and international human rights activists to call on the Russian authorities to ensure that this and other high-profile murders of journalists are solved.
Politkovskaya was also the author of two books on Chechnya, A Dirty War: A Russian reporter in Chechnya (2001), and Putin's Russia (2004).
According to Western press freedom organizations, Russia is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.
The murder of Politkovskaya brings to at least 43 the number of journalists killed for their work in Russia since 1993, making the country, along with Iraq, one of the world's most dangerous for reporters.
The 2004 murder of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov was also blamed at the time on Chechens, but two ethnic Chechen men subsequently accused and tried for the crime were acquitted.
