Books for the News, Politics and Current Events

Politkovskaya murder suspects acquitted

jacket imageSeveral news agencies are reporting this morning on a Russian court’s acquittal of three men who had been accused of participating in the 2006 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the renowned investigative journalist who reported on the brutal tactics used by Russian leaders to quell Chechen uprisings during the past several years.
A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya collects many of Politkovskaya’s articles and columns on Chechnya’s prolonged and bloody conflict with Russia, from which it declared independence in 1991. The book recounts the horrors of living in the midst of the war, examines how the war has affected Russian society, and takes a hard look at how people on both sides are profiting from it, from the guards who accept bribes from Chechens out after curfew to the United Nations. The result is a powerful and honest account of a dangerous and little-understood conflict. We have an excerpt from the book.