A rare shaft of daylight pierced the hermetically sealed world of the Kremlin this week with the unfolding of the bizarre case of Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s equivalent of the FBI. Accused of threatening to kill a prominent Russian reporter, Bastrykin first blustered that the story was “outright lies,” “stupidities and innuendo.” Then he called a press conference and issued an apology — without admitting the facts or even explaining what he was apologizing for.
The story broke when Dmitry Muratov, editor in chief of the crusading newspaper Novaya Gazeta, published an open letter to Bastrykin. The letter said Bastrykin, angered by a story the paper had published, had its deputy editor for investigative reporting, Sergei Sokolov, driven to a section of forest outside Moscow, where Bastrykin threatened to kill Sokolov and joked that he personally would lead the investigation into his death. Muratov said Sokolov had fled the country, and demanded that Bastrykin guarantee his safety.
Novaya Gazeta is no stranger to violence. At least three of its journalists have been killed in the past decade in retaliation for their reporting, including the illustrious Anna Politkovskaya, winner of the OPC’s first Artyom Borovik award for courageous reporting in Russia. No one has been punished for any of the killings.
In an interview with the newspaper Izvestia, Bastrykin denied the whole story. As head of Russia’s Investigative Committee and a university classmate of the newly restored President Vladimir V. Putin, he clearly felt no threat from a mere newspaper. What happened to change his mind may never be known, but his next move was to call a meeting at the offices of the Interfax news agency. With the most prominent journalists in Russia in attendance, Bastrykin issued his apology, shook hands with Muratov, and said he had spoken by phone with Sokolov and offered him a wristwatch as a gesture of conciliation. Muratov said the matter was settled, and “Everything that I demanded in the letter has been satisfied.”
The OPC’s Freedom of the Press Committee has written two letters to Putin in response to this odd case. The first, before Bastrykin’s apology, demanded that he be suspended from his office while Muratov’s charges were investigated, and that criminal charges must be filed if the story was true. The second letter repeated those demands, explaining that Bastrykin’s threat, if true, “was a crime, which no vague apology can erase.” It would also represent “a gross dereliction of duty” undermining the rule of law, and faith in the system could be restored only with Bastrykin’s prosecution. The committee looks forward to Putin’s response.