At the beginning of this week the Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor General’s office confirmed officially that Rustam Makhmudov – the elder brother of the arrested last year three Makhmudov brothers – is believed to be the performer of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. That means, it’s him to be recognized to be the killer.

Actually, the Committee’s spokesperson did not add anything new to what was already known due to numerous leaks. The name of supposed killer was published in the media right after an APB on him was passed to Interpol and Makhmudov was put on the wanting list exactly in relation with Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. He had been on the wanting list before, but that was about another grave crime.     

In August 2007, after the first arrests were made, the high ranking officials from the special services, courts etc. began to make statements publicly letting out the secrecy of investigation. We supposed that could harm the case and it happened exactly like that. Naturally, the suspected Rustam Makhmudov did not want to wait till the police come for him. As soon as he learnt how far the investigation had advanced and who else, besides his brothers, got arrested, he just escaped to abroad. Now he’s being looked for by Interpol. The term of investigation getting expired, it is going to happen that the court proceedings will start without the killer on the dock.   

One may say that people, who organized those unprecedented leaks, they have been successful in messing up the criminal case. To our mind, it’s exactly this circumstance that must become subject to fixed public attention, while the interested persons are trying to shift it to trifles that matter nothing for the investigation outcomes. 

This week, for example, the fact that two of the suspects – Demelkhanov and Grachev – were released to the written cognizance of not to leave, was made the chief news. Pyotr Garibyan, the head of the investigative group said to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent:  

“Yes, I took this decision proceeding from the norms of Criminal-Procedural Code. All the necessary investigative steps having been done towards those persons, they cannot hinder the further course. The role of those people was auxiliary in Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. So investigation had grounds for changing restraint for Grachev and Demelkhanov.” 

It should be noted that Grachev and Demelkhanov are not acquitted; they will be waiting for trial being at large.

However, on the day of announcing this decision the public attention was tried to be attracted to a false intrigue: the comments appeared alleging that the Prosecutor General’s office is nearly going to appeal the investigation’s decision.   

We got in touch with the Prosecutor General’s Office and we were told plainly that there are no problems and contradictions, as the investigator acted within his competence, while for some reasons the routine questions of document circulation came to be presented for public attention. Moreover, the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s office knows the case in details, so the investigator’s decision did not come unexpected to it. Neither did it for the journalists from Novaya Gazeta who are engaged in independent investigation of the Anna Politkovskaya’s murder.   

We are often asked if we have hypotheses regarding those who organized the murder. We have it. And the analysis of the nature and sources of the leaks allows us getting closer in finding the name of the organizer.