Putin’s Russia

"That’s quite another book. The author is, of course, well known in the world. I met her once. She was in Strasburg when I was at the European Parliament, and we had a discussion – that must have been a couple of years before she was killed. She was very upset about the development of Russia and the authoritarian attitude of Putin. He’s not a Stalinist dictator, but he’s reckless. He’s an authoritarian guy who doesn’t like opposition, and he’s prepared to use all the means of the state. We have such politicians in democratic states, but he’s very ruthless. Politkovskaya spent a lot of time in Chechnya, of course, and she saw how they really tortured and killed people out there. Shoot first and ask afterwards. She was a very down-to-earth journalist, and she gave the reality from the point of view of the common people, especially women, but also others. She was not non-partisan; she was very partisan, but she managed to be a professional journalist, although she was so emotionally engaged, and that’s probably why somebody saw her as a threat. I don’t think Putin killed her, but when she was assassinated (probably by some stooges of the Chechen leader) Putin made a very awkward comment about people we don’t need, or something. Yes, there are many stories about women who they suspect were terrorists. There was a Russian officer finally convicted because he was too cruel: he took a woman prisoner and used her sexually and abused her and then he killed her. There are a lot of similar stories. They don’t always end with the killing of the victim, but there was a lot of sexual abuse among the Russian soldiers in Chechnya."