linkyForbes Editor Khlebnikov Killed in Moscow
Created: 10.07.2004 01:01 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:07 MSK, 11 hours 3 minutes ago
MosNews
Paul (Pavel) Khlebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine, was killed late Friday night just as he was walking out of the building housing his Moscow office, Gazeta.ru reported. Russian authorities are investigating the murder.
At about 10 p.m. Moscow time, as Khlebnikov was leaving the building, unidentified attackers fired at him from a dark-colored car. Shell casings from two handguns were found on the scene. Khlebnikov received four wounds. He died on the way to the hospital.
Just before he died, Khlebnikov was able to say he did not know why he was shot at, Russian Newsweek’s Editor-in-Chief Alexander Gordeyev told Interfax. Gordeyev talked to Khlebnikov directly after the attack.
“I asked Paul several times, what does he think, why this might have happened. Paul told me he did not know. He told me several times that nothing happened recently that was suspicious to him. He did not say anything else on the subject, he was just asking for help,” Gordeyev said, as quoted by Interfax.
While Khlebnikov headed the new Russian Forbes, he was also undertaking certain independent investigations that he did not speak of, Gazeta.ru reported, citing the source from Forbes.
Leonid Bershidsky, the publisher of Russian Forbes and Newsweek editions, said, however, that Khlebnikov had not investigated anything since February and did not “dig up anything sensitive,” Interfax reported. Bershidsky acknowledges that someone might have been trying to prevent Khlebnikov from running anymore investigations in the future or maybe some “tough guy” just doesn’t like the Forbes project.
Khlebnikov, who was born in New York in 1963 and has worked for Forbes since 1989, published a controversial article in 1996 alleging tycoon Boris Berezovsky, then deputy secretary of the Security Council, headed a criminal organization.
Berezovsky sued the magazine and won, after which Forbes apologized. During the trial, however, Khlebnikov published the equally controversial book, Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia.
This May as editor in chief of the Russian Forbes, Khlebnikov published a rating of Russian millionaires, many of whom later said they were unhappy about the publication.
The Secretary General of the Russian Journalists Union Igor Yakovenko said in an interview to Ekho Moskvy radio that the sphere Khlebnikov covered in his professional work is “a minefield” and that “Russian business is an extremely shadowy sphere, and it’s dangerous to turn on the light here.”
Ann Cooper of the Committee to Protect Journalists said in an article on CPJ’s website that “Russia is consistently one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalists and we call on the Russian authorities to aggressively investigate and prosecute this case.”
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
