Anna Politkovskaya’s assassination in Moscow on October 7 of last year was a shock felt around the world. Emotion has been running high ever since: Anna incarnated a demand for truth and justice that made her one of the consciences of the early 21st century. She was part of a tradition of dissidents from the Eastern bloc, and she paid the ultimate price for her commitment.
Anna Politkovskaya rose up against the cynicism and violence that have the upper hand in Russia, which is why she stood up to Vladimir Putin’s regime. She denounced both the war in Chechenya and the silence of the Occident, which chose to close its eyes rather than lose its access to Russian gas. As she deplored both the Russian people’s passivity and the democratic opposition’s weakness. This general abdication of responsibility was, in her opinion, a harbinger of a painful and dangerous future in Russia and beyond.
This book allows certain writers, intellectuals and journalists to pay homage to Anna Politkovskaya, so that her voice will continue to be heard.
A book that lets readers comprehend this exceptional personality better, on the eve of two major Russian elections (legislative in December, 2007 and presidential in March, 2008). An invitation to courage and lucidity in a destabilized world in which might, more than ever, makes right