Yuri Shchekochikhin#Death

{{Short description|Russian investigative journalist, writer and lawmaker}}

{{family name hatnote|Petrovich|Shchekochikhin|lang=Eastern Slavic}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Yuri Shchekochikhin

| native_name = {{nobold|Юрий Щекочихин}}

| native_name_lang = ru

| image = Yuri Shchekochikhin.jpg

| birth_date = 9 June 1950

| birth_place = Kirovabad, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union (present-day Ganja, Azerbaijan)

| death_date = 3 July 2003 (aged 53)

| death_place = Moscow, Russia

| death_cause = Illness; radiation poisoning suspected

| office1 = Member of the State Duma

| termstart1 = 1995

| termend1 = 2003

| office2 = Member of the Congress of People's Deputies

| termstart2 = 1990

| termend2 = 1991

| alma_mater = Moscow State University

| occupation = Journalist, politician

| awards = Medal "Defender of a Free Russia"
Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
Medal of 13 January

|party =Yabloko

}}

Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin ({{lang-rus|Ю́рий Петро́вич Щекочи́хин|p=ˈjʉrʲɪj pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ɕːɪkɐˈtɕixʲɪn}}; 9 June 1950 – 3 July 2003) was a Soviet and later Russian investigative journalist, writer, and liberal lawmaker in the Russian parliament. Shchekochikhin wrote and campaigned against the influence of organized crime and corruption. His last non-fiction book, Slaves of the KGB, was about people who worked as KGB informers.

As a journalist for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta (NG), Shchekochikhin investigated apartment bombings allegedly directed by the Russian secret services and the Three Whales Corruption Scandal which involved high-ranking FSB officers and was associated with money laundering through the Bank of New York. In the 1995 Russian legislative election he became a member of the State Duma. He was re-elected in the 1999 legislative election.

Shchekochikhin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 from a mysterious illness a few days before his scheduled departure to the United States, where he planned to meet with FBI investigators. His medical documents, according to NG, were either lost or destroyed by authorities.{{Cite news| last=Соколов |first=Сергей |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2013/07/03/55342-my-stavim-tochku |title=Мы ставим точку |trans-title=We put an end to it |date=2013-07-03 |website=Новая газета № 71 |language=ru|access-date=2019-07-04}} The symptoms of his illness fit a pattern of poisoning by radioactive materials and were similar to the symptoms of Nikolai Khokhlov, Roman Tsepov, and Alexander Litvinenko. According to Litvinenko and news reports, the death of Yuri Shchekochikhin was a politically motivated assassination.{{cite book

|last1=Goldfarb

|first1=Alexander

|author1-link=Alexander Goldfarb (author)

|last2=Litvinenko

|first2=Marina

|date=2007

|title=Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB

|location=New York

|publisher=Free Press

|isbn=978-1-4165-5165-2

}}{{cite news|url=https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/from-russia-with-love/ |work=New York Times |title=From Russia With Love |last=Zeller Jr. |first=Tom | date=20 November 2006 |access-date=17 November 2019}}

Early life

Shchekochikhin was born in Kirovabad, Azerbaijan SSR in June 1950 and was of Azerbaijani origin.

Investigative journalism and political career

Shchekochikhin graduated from the Journalism Department of Moscow State University in 1975. He worked as an investigative journalist at Komsomolskaya Pravda (1972–1980) and Literaturnaya Gazeta (1980–1996), and then as a deputy editor of the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta (from 1996). Beginning in the 1990s, he published many articles critical of the First and Second Chechen Wars, human rights abuses in the Russian army, state corruption, and other social issues.

In the summer of 1988, Shchekochikhin published an interview with a lieutenant colonel of the militia Aleksander Gurov, in which the existence of organized crime in the Soviet Union was first publicly stated. That brought fame to both Gurov (who became the head of the 6th Agency of the MVD of the USSR which struggled against organized crime) and Shchekochikhin.{{cite web |url=http://lenta.ru/lib/14170685/ |title=Щекочихин, Юрий |language=ru |trans-title=Dossier on Shchekochikhin |access-date=17 November 2019 |website=Lenta.ru}}

Yuri Shchekochikhin began his political career in 1990, when he was elected as a representative to the Congress of People's Deputies. He was elected to the Russian State Duma from the liberal Yabloko party in 1995. He was a member of a Duma committee on the problems of corruption, and was a UN expert on the problems of organized crime. He was a vocal opponent of the First and Second Chechen Wars.

Since early 1995, he has been an author and host of an investigative journalism program called "Special Team" on ORT, Russian television's first channel (then owned by Boris Berezovsky). In October 1995, the heads of the channel closed the program. According to Shchekochikhin, the reason was an episode called "For Motherland! For Mafia!", which was devoted to the Chechen War and was unleashed, in his opinion, by the "leading banks of Russia".

In 2000, he accused Russia's Deputy PM Ilya Klebanov of covering up the fact that Russia did not have the resources to attempt a rescue of the Kursk submarine crew.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/926105.stm |work=BBC News |title=Kremlin denies Kursk deception |date=15 September 2000 |access-date=17 November 2019}}

From 2002, Shchekochikhin was a member of the Sergei Kovalev Commission, which investigated allegations that the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings had been orchestrated by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to generate support for the war.{{cite news |last=Birch |first=Douglas |url=http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/107.htm |title=Putin critic loses post, platform for inquiry |work=The Baltimore Sun |location=Moscow |date=2003-12-11 |access-date=2019-11-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060310062954/http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/107.htm |archive-date=2006-03-10 }}

One of Shchekochikhin's last articles before his death was "Are we Russia or KGB of Soviet Union?".{{cite news |date=27 January 2003 |last=Щекочихин |first=Юрий |title=Мы — Россия или КГБ СССР? |trans-title=Are we Russia or KGB of Soviet Union? |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2003/01/27/19656-my-rossiya-ili-kgb-sssr |language=ru |work=Новая газета № 06 |access-date=2 October 2017}} It described such issues as the refusal of the FSB to explain to the Russian Parliament what poison gas was released during the Moscow theater hostage crisis, and the work of secret services from Turkmenistan, which operated with impunity in Moscow against Russian citizens of Turkmеn origin.

He also tried to investigate the Three Whales Corruption Scandal and criminal activities of FSB officers related to money laundering through the Bank of New York and illegal actions of Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian Minister of Nuclear Energy.{{cite news |date=19 June 2006 |title=Гнутые Спинки |trans-title=Bent Backs |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2006/06/19/28889-gnutye-spinki |work=Новая газета № 45 |language=ru |access-date=2 October 2017}}{{cite news |first=Victor |last=Yasmann |date=26 September 2006 |title=Russia: Corruption Scandal Could Shake Kremlin |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1071621.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |access-date=17 November 2017}} The Three Whales case was under the personal control of President Vladimir Putin.{{cite news |date=2 June 2003 |last=Щекочихин |first=Юрий |title=Дело о "Трех китах": Судье угрожают, прокурора изолировали, свидетеля убили |trans-title=The case of the “Three Pillars”: The judge is threatened, the prosecutor is isolated, the witness is killed |url=http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2003-06-02.shtml |language=ru |work=Новая газета №39 |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=3 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703195000/http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/text/2003-06-02.shtml |url-status=dead }} In June 2003, Shchekochikhin contacted the FBI and received an American visa to discuss the case with US authorities. However, he never reached the USA because of his sudden death. Some Russian media claimed that Putin had issued an order to discharge 19 high-ranking FSB officers involved in this case in September 2006 as part of a Kremlin power struggle, but all of these officers continued to work in their FSB positions as of November 2006.{{cite news |date=13 November 2006 |title=Уволенные указом Путина генералы ФСБ продолжают работать |trans-title=FSB generals dismissed by Putin's decree continue to work |url=http://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.114307.html |work=Грани.ру |language=ru |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201541/http://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/President/m.114307.html |url-status=dead }}

Death

Shchekochikhin died suddenly on 3 July 2003 after a mysterious 16-day illness.{{cite news |date=19 June 2006 |title=Последнее дело Юрия Щекочихина |trans-title=The last case of Yuri Shchekochikhin |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2006/06/19/28893-poslednee-delo-yuriya-schekochihina |work=Новая газета № 45 |language=ru |access-date=2 October 2017}} It was officially declared that he died from an allergic Lyell's syndrome. His medical treatment and his post-mortem took place at the Central Clinical Hospital, which is "tightly controlled by the Russian Federal Security Service because it treats top-ranking Russian officials". His relatives were denied an official medical report about the cause of his illness, and were forbidden to take specimens of his tissues for an independent medical investigation. Journalists of Novaya Gazeta managed to send his tissue specimens to "major foreign specialists". The experts did not reach any definite conclusion.{{Cite news |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2006/10/30/27424-agent-neizvesten |title=Агент неизвестен |trans-title=Agent unknown |date=30 October 2006 |work=Новая газета № 82 |language=ru| access-date=30 October 2007}} This caused widespread speculation about the cause of his death, especially since another member of the Kovalev commission, Sergei Yushenkov, was assassinated the same year{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2957823.stm |work=BBC News |title=Yushenkov: A Russian idealist |date=17 April 2003 |access-date=17 November 2019}}{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2958997.stm |work=BBC News |title=Russian MP's death sparks storm |date=18 April 2003 |access-date=17 November 2019}} and the legal counsel and investigator of the commission, Mikhail Trepashkin, was arrested by Russian authorities.{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/76000/eur460132006en.pdf |title=Amnesty International calls for Mikhail Trepashkin to be released pending a full review of his case |website=Amnesty International |date=24 March 2006 |access-date=17 November 2019}}

Some news reports drew parallels between the poisonings of Shchekochikhin, Alexander Litvinenko, and president Vladimir Putin’s former bodyguard Roman Tsepov, who died in a similar way in St. Petersburg in September 2004.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6324241.stm |first=Julian |last=O'Halloran |work=BBC Radio 4 |title=Russia's poisoning 'without a poison' |date=6 February 2007 |access-date=30 July 2007}} Others noted Lecha Islamov, a Chechen rebel, who died in a Russian prison in 2004. “All three cases of poisoning – of Islamov, Shchekochikhin and Litvinenko – are united not only by the clinical picture, which is identical even in terms of the details, but also by the fact that the traces of the poisoners clearly point to one address: Moscow, Lubyanka (FSB headquarters),” according to a Chechenpress report written by Zelimkhan Khadzhiev.{{cite news |date=30 November 2006 |url=https://jamestown.org/program/chechen-separatists-eulogize-litvinenko/ |title=Chechen separatists eulogize Litvinenko |work=North Caucasus Weekly |volume=7 |issue=46 |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation| access-date=2 October 2017}}

Last book and publications

Shchekochikhin's last published book was Slaves of the KGB: 20th Century. The Religion of Betrayal (Рабы ГБ. XX век. Религия предательства), tells the real stories of some of the many people forcibly recruited by the Russian KGB (the domestic operations of which later became the FSB) to work as undercover informers or agents. These people virtually became their KGB controllers' slaves, betraying their relatives, close friends and colleagues. When he died, he had not finished working on a book about the 20th Century wars in Chechnya.

In an interview he gave just before his death, he said {{Quotation|Many years ago we...summed up the mafia in the following phrase: The lion has jumped. This year, in January, we gave the mafia the following characterization: The lion has jumped and is already wearing epaulets. By comparison what is going on today in our security services, in our prosecutor's office, all bandits are simply boy scouts. Today, it is precisely the people who are needed to fight crime and corruption that have raised the flag of corruption and crime. This has not bypassed the secret police; what has never happened before happens constantly now - the protection that they provide, the enormous amounts of money they receive, and the control over ports and banks that they exercise.}}{{cite book

|last1=Felshtinsky

|first1=Yuri

|author1-link=Yuri Felshtinsky

|last2=Pribylovsky

|first2=Vladimir

|author2-link=Vladimir Pribylovsky

|date=2008

|title=The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin

|location=London

|publisher=Gibson Square Books

|isbn=978-1-906142-07-0

|page=243

}}

Investigation

At the request of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper staff, the Investigative Committee of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia reopened the investigation into his death on 27 October 2007.{{cite news |date=2007-10-29 |title=Смерть Юрия Щекочихина расследуют заново |trans-title=Death of Shchekochikhin to be investigated anew |url=http://lenta.ru/news/2007/10/29/schekochihin/ |language=ru |work=Lenta.ru |access-date=17 November 2019}} In April 2008, an Investigative Committee official said that there would be another test carried out on his tissue to ascertain whether there had been a case of poisoning.{{cite news |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Nabi |last2=Osadchuk |first2=Svetlana |date=2008-07-03 |title=Mystery Shrouds Shchekochikhin's Death |url=http://oldtmt.vedomosti.ru/article.php?id=368688 |work=The Moscow Times |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224063959/http://oldtmt.vedomosti.ru/article.php?id=368688 |url-status=dead }} The Prosecutor General of Russia closed the criminal case in April 2009 after the examination had failed to prove poisoning or violent death.{{cite news |date=2009-04-09 |title=Прекращено уголовное дело по факту смерти журналиста и депутата Госдумы Щекочихина |trans-title=The criminal case into the death of journalist and State Duma deputy Shchekochikhin was closed |url=https://www.newsru.com/russia/09apr2009/zakryli.html |language=ru |work=NEWSru |access-date=17 November 2019}}{{Cite news |last=Shchedrov |first=Oleg |url=https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE53855X20090409|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413101343/http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE53855X20090409|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-04-13| title=Investigators say Russian reporter wasn't murdered| date=2009-04-10|work=Reuters|access-date=2019-11-14}}

Books

{{cite book |last=Щекочихин |first=Юрий |date=1999 |title=Рабы ГБ. XX век. Религия предательства |trans-title=Slaves of KGB. 20th Century. The religion of betrayal |url=https://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/Raby/rab.html |language=ru |location=Samara |publisher=Федоров}}

References

External links

= English =

{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,3604,994245,00.html |work=The Guardian |title=Yuri Shchekochikhin (obituary) |last=Corley |first=Felix |date=9 July 2003 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |date=24 November 2006 |title=A look at Kremlin critics who have been killed or died mysterious deaths |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/24/europe/EU_GEN_Britan_Poisoned_Spy_Glance.php |url-status=dead |work=International Herald Tribune |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924052640/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/24/europe/EU_GEN_Britan_Poisoned_Spy_Glance.php |archive-date=24 September 2008 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite journal |last=Arias-King |first=Fredo |date=2004 |title=Yuri Shchekochikhin: A Tribute |url=http://demokratizatsiya.pub/archives/12_1_12_1_ARIAS-KING.pdf |journal=Demokratizatsiya |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=157–159 |doi=10.3200/DEMO.12.1.157-159 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite magazine |first=Virginie |last=Coulloudon |date=16 July 2003 |title=Yuri Shchekochikhin: How long can one write about the same thing? |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1071621.html |magazine=RFE/RL Russia Report |volume=3 |issue=28 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |date=19 October 2006 |title=Russia: High-Profile Killings, Attempted Killings In The Post-Soviet Period |location=Prague |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1071368.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |date=30 October 2007 |title=Prosecutors open probe into 2003 death of Moscow reporter |location=New York |url=https://cpj.org/2007/10/prosecutors-open-probe-into-2003-death-of-moscow-r.php |work=Committee to Protect Journalists |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/01/29/kremlin-inc |magazine=The New Yorker |title=Kremlin, Inc. Why are Vladimir Putin's opponents dying? |last=Specter |first=Michael |date=21 January 2007 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |first1=Bradley |last1=Cook |first2=Henry |last2=Meyer |date=6 March 2007 |title=Thallium Poisons U.S. Mother, Daughter in Moscow |url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aVJN1g2yitMQ&refer=us |url-status=dead |work=Bloomberg L.P. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020025554/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aVJN1g2yitMQ&refer=us |archive-date=20 October 2012 |location=Moscow |access-date=17 November 2019}}

= Russian =

{{cite web |url=http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/ |title=Site dedicated to Yuri Shchekochikhin |language=ru |access-date=17 November 2019 |website=Новая газета |archive-date=6 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206010217/http://ys.novayagazeta.ru/ |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |url=https://www.yabloko.ru/Persons/schekoch.html |title=Biography of Yuri Shchekochikhin |language=ru |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=18 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918180052/https://yabloko.ru/Persons/schekoch.html |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |url=http://www.rusglobus.net/shekochihin/index.shtml |title=Personal site of Yuri Shekochikhin |language=ru |access-date=17 November 2019 |archive-date=4 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704192709/http://www.rusglobus.net/shekochihin/index.shtml |url-status=usurped }}
{{cite news |date=11 August 2003 |title=Юрий Щекочихин: Меня научили никого не обманывать и ничего не бояться |trans-title=I have learned to always tell the truth and be afraid of nothing (an interview with Yuri Shchekochikhin) |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2003/08/11/17624-yuriy-schekochihin-menya-nauchili-nikogo-ne-obmanyvat-i-nichego-ne-boyatsya |language=ru |work=Новая газета № 58 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |date=15 June 2000 |title=Письма президентов... |trans-title=Letters from the Presidents (congratulations from Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin on his 50th birthday in 2000) |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2000/06/15/8895-pisma-prezidentov |language=ru |work=Новая газета № 41 |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite web |date=15 August 2004 |title=Памяти Юрия Щекочихина |trans-title=Memories of Yuri Shchekochikhin (discussion about Yuri Shchekochikhin) |url=https://echo.msk.ru/programs/kazino/26654/ |language=ru |website=Echo of Moscow |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite web |first=Виталий |last=Попов |title=Последний российский святой |trans-title=Last Russian Saint |url=https://www.yabloko.ru/Publ/2004/Bulletin/200401-03/bull032004044.html |language=ru |access-date=17 November 2019}}
{{cite news |date=20 January 2003 |first=Елена |last=Рыковцева |title=Как поссорились Ахмат-Хаджи Абдулхамидович с Михаилом Викторовичем |trans-title=Shchekochikhin about bombing of Chechen governmental building in Grozny |url=https://www.svoboda.org/a/24200990.html |language=ru |work=Радио Свобода |access-date=17 November 2019}}