20 March the investigator from the prosecutor office of the Western District of Moscow (WDM) M.Petrov informed the Novaya Gazeta editorial board that it had been refused for the third time to start a criminal case on the fact of death of the deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, Deputy of the State Duma Yuri Shchekochihin. He also advised that an official paper had been sent to us by mail. 

25 March Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor General’s office reported to the media that the decision by the WDM investigator had been canceled and all the materials had been sent for the forth check – this time it will be done by Moscow Investigative Department.

Novaya Gazeta editorial board considers this to be the only possible decision and it will do its best to assist the investigation. Along with that we believe that independent investigation must be continued and foreign parliamentarian structures and journalist organizations should get involved. 

We do hope that the truth will be established jointly with the official investigation. We realize it might take quite a long time. We shall not be in haste and we want to believe that investigators won’t be beforehand in their conclusions another time.