CLOAK AND DAGGER

Anna Politkovskaya. Shot by an assassin in the lift of her apartment building.

Prominent Journalist, Kremlin Critic, Shot Dead In Moscow

Hundreds rallied in downtown Moscow on Sunday to protest the murder of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
the apparent contract killing Saturday of Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the war in Chechnya who had tirelessly uncovered abuses against civilians, became a major focus of the protest that drew about 500 demonstrators to Pushkin Square.

Russian Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 48, had today been due to publish an article on torture and kidnappings by pro-Moscow forces in the restless southern republic of Chechnya, her colleagues said. About a dozen other Russian reporters have been killed in Russia since Putin came to power.

Politkovskaya was poisoned on a flight to Belsan during the hostage seige which ended in the deaths of hundreds, mostly children. She was intent on arranging negotiations to defuse the situation.

Belsan questions

Was the hostage-taking preventable? How many guerrillas were there, and did any of them manage to escape? Why did the bombs in the gym explode, and why did the roof catch fire? The tank parked outside the school: how many times did it fire, and at what targets? Exactly why did the hostages die? Were there any plans to storm the school, and was there any possibility of reaching agreement with the terrorists on a "peaceful" withdrawal?
Other publications add further questions to this list. What were senior state officials doing during those three dark days? Why were orders from the Interior Ministries of North Ossetia ignored? They had prior information about the guerrillas planning an operation. How did a number of armed terrorists manage to enter Beslan at all?
That last question, as the Kommersant newspaper reports, is answered by Shamil Basayev in a statement posted on his Kavkazcenter.com website shortly before the first anniversary of the tragedy. He claims that his people were "encouraged" to seize the school by "the special services of North Ossetia".