List of journalists killed in Russia
Updated: 5/20/2026, 7:04:54 PM Wikipedia source
The dangers to journalists in Russia have been known since the early 1990s but concern over the number of unsolved killings soared after Anna Politkovskaya's murder in Moscow on 7 October 2006. While international monitors mentioned a dozen deaths, some sources within Russia talked of over two hundred fatalities. The evidence has since been examined and documented in two reports, published in Russian and English, by international organizations. These revealed a basic confusion in terminology that explained the seemingly enormous numerical discrepancy: statistics of premature death among journalists (from work accidents, crossfire incidents, and purely criminal or domestic cases of manslaughter) were repeatedly equated with the much smaller number of targeted (contract) killings or work-related murders. It is worth considering that while not all murders can be linked directly to the Kremlin, the frequency of these murders and their effects on Russian independent media certainly suggest complacency on the part of law enforcement officials. The Remembrance Day of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty in Russia is observed on 15 December every year.
Tables
| President | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | P | P | P | P |
| Year | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Murder, crossfire, terrorist act | 10 | 12 | 22 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 12 | 23 | 11 |
| Murder only | 3 | 8 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 15 | 11 | 20 | 11 |
| Trials | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
References
- Czar Putinhttp://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0712/09/se.02.html
- KILLING THE MESSENGER: The report on the global inquiry into the protection of journalists, INSI: Brussels, 2007.https://web.archive.org/web/20111202205415/http://www.newssafety.org/images/pdf/KillingtheMessenger.pdf
- "Contract killings", p. 21, PARTIAL JUSTICE, IFJ: Brussels, June 2009.https://web.archive.org/web/20110610160910/http://www.ifj.org/assets/docs/235/009/f99d3eb-c1b1209.pdf
- "JOURNALISTS IN RUSSIA, An online database, "Homicide of media directors""https://web.archive.org/web/20110726211634/http://journalists-in-russia.org/journalists/index/incident%3Ahomicide/job%3Adirector
- JOURNALISTS IN RUSSIA, Deaths and Disappearances: An online database IFJ, October 2009.https://web.archive.org/web/20090709092723/http://www.journalists-in-russia.org/
- ЖУРНАЛИСТЫ В РОССИИ. Смерти и исчезновения. База данных Международная федерация журналистов.https://web.archive.org/web/20090710122333/http://journalists-in-russia.org/rjournalists
- PARTIAL JUSTICE: An inquiry into the deaths of journalists in Russia, 1993-2009, IFJ: Brussels, June 2009.http://www.ifj.org/fileadmin/images/Killed_List/Partial_Justice__An_Inquiry_into_Deaths_of_Journalists_in_Russia_93-09.pdf
- ЧАСТИЧНОЕ ПРАВОСУДИЕ. Исследование смертей журналистов в России, 1993-2009. Международная федерация журналистов.https://web.archive.org/web/20110722133010/http://www.ruj.ru/2009/pjustice_090909.pdf
- "JOURNALISTS IN RUSSIA, An online database,"Deaths possibly linked to work""https://web.archive.org/web/20110726211642/http://journalists-in-russia.org/journalists/index/motive%3AxJ
- MEMORIUM. Погибшие и пропавшие без вести журналисты. The site covers the entire Commonwealth of Independent States.http://memorium.cjes.ru/?pid=1&l=Г/
- Perri, Frank S. and Lichtenwald, Terrance G. (2008). A Tale of Two Countries: International Fraud-Detection Homicide, Fohttp://www.all-about-psychology.com/support-files/international_fraud_detection_homicide.pdf
- See charts 2 & 3, PARTIAL JUSTICE, June 2009. "Killing with impunity in Russia, 1993-2008", pp. 11, 12.https://web.archive.org/web/20110610160910/http://www.ifj.org/assets/docs/235/009/f99d3eb-c1b1209.pdf
- See "The whole system stands condemned", 20 February 2009, Novaya gazeta. Transcript of press conference following verdihttps://web.archive.org/web/20090906133824/http://en.novayagazeta.ru/data/2009/18/00.html
- See discussion of Makeyev, Shchekochikhin and Safronov cases, ANATOMY OF INJUSTICE, September 2009 Archived 3 Septemberhttp://cpj.org/reports/CPJ.Anatomy%20of%20Injustice.pdf
- "Russian murder rate among world's worst". The Independent. 20 July 1993.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-murder-rate-among-worlds-worst-1486129.html
- "Russia – Crime Statistics". Library of Congress Country Studies.http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11538.html
- Social Science & Medicinehttps://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0277-9536%2802%2900509-9
- "Moscow Journal; To the Business Risks in Russia, Add Poisoning". The New York Times. 1995.https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/09/world/moscow-journal-to-the-business-risks-in-russia-add-poisoning.html
- "Exiled journalists, CPJ brief US congressional caucus on dangers facing Russian journalists", CPJ news release, 28 Junehttp://www.canada.ifex.org/fr/content/view/full/84529/
- "Some international comparisons", p. 9, PARTIAL JUSTICE, IFJ: Brussels, June 2009.https://web.archive.org/web/20110610160910/http://www.ifj.org/assets/docs/235/009/f99d3eb-c1b1209.pdf