Russian far-right activists arrested for murder of journalist and lawyer

Guardian:

Russian far-right activists arrested for murder of journalist and lawyer
Human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova were gunned down in Moscow earlier this year

Investigators today said they had solved one of Russia's most notorious killings and had arrested two far-right activists for the murders of the human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and the journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Markelov – a friend of the assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya – and Baburova were gunned down in January in central Moscow. They had been walking towards the metro when a hitman shot Markelov in the back of the head. Baburova may have tried to grab the assassin and was also shot, dying in hospital.

Today Russia's federal security service (FSB) named their killers as Eugenia Khasis, 24, and Nikita Tikhonov, 29. While Khasis appears to have no previous convictions, Tikhonov is a veteran neo-Nazi activist wanted in connection with the murder of an anti-fascist campaigner.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, citing FSB sources, the young woman and young man worked in tandem. Khasis acted as a "spotter" – trailing Markelov and Baburova as they set off from Moscow's independent press centre. Tipped off, Tikhonov then shot them using a silencer-fitted pistol, sources told the paper.

Today however, friends of the murdered lawyer and journalist urged caution. They said it was too early to say whether the suspects were involved in the killings, and pointed out the murders did not resemble other bloody attacks carried out by violent ultra-nationalist gangs. Their hallmarks are large groups and knives.

The murders 10 months ago proved deeply embarrassing for the Kremlin, and followed the killing of Politkovskaya in October 2006, in her Moscow apartment. Both Markelov and Baburova were associated with Politkovskaya's paper Novaya Gazeta – with Baburova working as a freelance.

"Markelov's killing is a high-profile case under the control of the head of Russia's investigative committee. This means that they have to find someone," Alexander Verkovsky, director of Moscow's Centre for Information and Analysis (SOVA), which monitors hate crime in Russia, said today.

He went on: "There are two ways to do this. You find the proper offender. Or you find someone who may easily be accused in this affair. Which case we are dealing with now I don't know. It's possible. But the crime is very unusual for xenophobic violence, unique even. At the same time, the name of the man is known to us."

President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to improve Russia's dismal human rights record following a string of unsolved killings of human rights workers and reporters. The head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, took the rare step of personally briefing Medvedev about today's arrests – claiming the killer had "confessed".

According to Verkhovsky, Tikhonov is a member of the United Brigade 88, one of several fanatical neo-Nazi outfits active in Russia. (The numbers 88 correspond to HH in the alphabet – "Heil Hitler".) Detectives say he was one of six extremists who took part in the murder of Alexander Ryukhin, a 19-year-old student.

Ryukhin was stabbed to death in April 2006 on his way to an anti-Nazi punk concert. Three of his attackers escaped, allegedly including Tikhonov. But three others went on trial with Markelov representing the family of the victim – a perfect motive, prosecutors are likely to argue, for revenge.

Investigators said that Tikhonov and Khasis were both members of Russia National Unity – another now-defunct far-right party. The group's leader, however, said he had never heard of either of them. Other well-known nationalist organisers said the pair were victims of a political campaign directed against Russia's far-right.

"I don't know why investigators are talking about Russian National Unity. It hasn't existed since 1999," Dmitry Demushkin, leader of the Slavic Union said. He added: "I don't have any concrete version of this murder. It could have been Chechens or nationalists. Or someone else."

Khasis worked as a sales manager in a Moscow accountancy software firm. Today her colleagues said she had last appeared for work on Monday. She had shown no signs of neo-Nazi proclivities, they added. "I'm shocked. She is an attractive tall girl, friendly, chatty, open, and sociable," her colleague Alexander said. "You would never imagine her being involved in something as terrible as this."