Khodorkovsky Comments on Brutal Police Killing of Former YUKOS Employee

21 Jan 2010
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Communications Center

Konstantin Popov, a Russian journalist who previously worked as a spokesman for YUKOS, died yesterday, after being thrown into a Siberian drunk tank and savagely beaten by a young police officer.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who personally knew Popov, expressed his condolences in a statement:

"My sincerest condolences go the family and friends of Konstantin Popov, who was killed in Tomsk. He worked at YUKOS, and I knew him and his family personally. I remember him as a great person and a professional.

What has happened is beyond my understanding, and I think many people would agree with me. This is more than a crime, this is a failure of the whole system, which must be seriously addressed by the Government and society. This great person will be very much missed."

Speaking to The Moscow Times, Popov's editor in chief at Tomskaya Nedelya weekly, said: "he was horribly maimed...even the surgeons were shocked by what they saw." Tomsk investigators confirmed that Popov died after suffering "serious injuries," spending two weeks in a coma.

The Los Angeles Times notes that attacks on journalists in Russia are not uncommon and that, because he was a journalist, his death has drawn national attention, leading to the arrest of the police officer in question who confessed and blamed a difficult home life for his savagery.

Svetlana Gannushkina, a human rights lawyer and chairwoman of Russia's Civic Assistance Committee, said: "The same thing happens every day...The only thing different about this case is that he happened to be a journalist, so it became a high-profile public case". He added: "Usually the cases are just closed down because there's no evidence, nobody testifies, and it's impossible to get to the bottom of it."

Even discounting high profile attacks on journalists critical of Russia's ruling elite, Human rights officials have warned that the case is just one small story in a "tapestry of alcoholism, police brutality and the expectation of authoritative impunity in Russia today".