Saturday 29 March another attempt was made to prevent investigation of the Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, as published was the name of the supposed killer who is not arrested yet. The purpose of the leak is clear – that was done to warn the killer.  

Some other names of persons that might be checked by the investigation were also put to light. And again the purpose is clear – it was done to help the interested people to do their best to prevent giving testimony.  

Novaya Gazeta has no doubts that it was done intentionally. Even a novice in the legal matters would never publish such information realizing the possible consequences. And this is not the first leak in the case in question. Last autumn the media suddenly advertised the name of Shamil Buraev just before he got arrested on the Anna Politkovskaya’s case. Then it was only due to professionalism of the operative agents that Buraev’s arrest was made finally.  

This time again the leak was organized competently. Friday 28 March a technical question was considered at the proceeding of the military court. It was about prolongation of term of detention of one of the involved in the case – that’s the FSB officer Pavel Ryaguzov. The prosecutor Smirnov, when giving grounds for investigation’s application, reported that it had progressed significantly and now even the killer’s name is known to it. We shall note here that Mr. Smirnov did not give the name of the killer, of course.      

Actually, the information given by Mr. Smirnov is no news. The chief of the investigative group Pyotr Garibyan spoke about it in October in his interview to Novaya Gazeta. Of course, neither investigation nor we gave the name of the supposed killer, in that publication. But the name itself has been known for long.    

Anyway, the mentioning made by the prosecutor Smirnov was taken as an eye-opener and all the media came back to the topic. In that informational noise someone “whispered” the name to the journalists to get it published.

We can’t help noticing two circumstances. First, like it was about Buraev, the leak was organized just after the consideration by the military court of the Ryaguzov’s case, who is the FSB officer.    

Second, the supposed killer was put on the wanted list in relation to another case. The APB on him related to the Politkovskaya’s murder was supposed to appear only this week. This means the leak was made not from the low level. The killer’s name must have been known to a person who either carries out operative support for the investigation or is present at high ranking meetings.   

We are often asked “how is investigation going on?” Well, judging from how hastily someone is trying to hinder it, it’s easy to guess the investigation has made a significant progress. And some people begin to feel anxious.

P.S. The head of the investigative group Pyotr Garibyan told to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent that the investigation is considering the question of making internal inspection on the fact of organized leak.