Gorbachev launches new book by slain Putin critic

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Wednesday hosted the launch of a new book by murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the first by her to be widely available in her native land and language. Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and reporter of human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead last October. Investigators say her unsolved murder was linked to her reporting. Gorbachev, 76, hosted the launch at his political institute in Moscow alongside Politkovskaya’s son, daughter and estranged husband, who edited the book. Politkovskaya’s death sparked outrage in the West but little emotion in Russia, where previous books by her were never properly published. Her reports appeared only in the fringe intellectual newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’, part owned by Gorbachev. The 988-page hardback book, entitled ‘What for’ and priced at around 600 roubles (EUR 17), arranges work by Politkovskaya around different themes. Friends and colleagues at the launch criticized the slow pace of the investigation into her death. ‘It’s essential that the investigation is brought to a swift conclusion, the killers are found, they are prosecuted and justice is delivered,’ said Aidan White, General-Secretary of the worldwide journalists’ union the International Federation of Journalists, to applause from Gorbachev and others. White was in Moscow to attend a conference which called on governments to do more to catch reporters’ killers. (Reuters via ABC News)

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