Russia Arrests 10 in Slaying of Outspoken Journalist

Members of Police, Security Services Are Held

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 -- Russia's chief prosecutor announced Monday that 10 people involved in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya had been arrested, alleging that those behind the murder of the well-known Kremlin critic included members of Russia's police and security services.

Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika also said investigators had determined that the assassination could have been ordered only by someone outside Russia. That statement angered editors at Politkovskaya's newspaper, who have been involved in the investigation and who insisted Monday that the probe indicated no such thing.

Politkovskaya, who was gunned down Oct. 7 as she stepped into the elevator of her Moscow apartment building, had written extensively about war crimes, human rights abuses and other injustices in modern Russia. Her articles and books brought her many enemies, and her contract-style murder dealt a serious blow to the image of President Vladimir Putin, with whom she was often at odds.

In a briefing broadcast widely on state television, Chaika told reporters that one of the people arrested in Politkovskaya's killing was an ethnic Chechen crime boss whose group had organized the assassination. Three former police officers, a police major and a member of the FSB, a successor agency to the KGB, were also arrested.

Chaika did not reveal any names but said the 10 would soon be charged. Later Monday, at a news conference, a senior FSB official identified one of the people arrested as Pavel Ryaguzov, a lieutenant colonel in the security service, the Interfax news agency reported.

Putin and other Russian officials have long argued that Politkovskaya's killing was orchestrated by someone outside Russia. Chaika echoed that view in his announcement Monday.

"Our investigation has led us to conclude that only people living outside the Russian Federation could be interested in eliminating Politkovskaya," Chaika said. The killing, he went on, would have been most appealing to forces aiming to "destabilize the country, change its constitutional order, stoke crisis, return to the old system where money and oligarchs decided everything, discredit the national leadership, and provoke external pressure on our country."

While editors at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, where Politkovskaya worked, praised lower-level government investigators for their professionalism, they were critical of Chaika's announcement.

Sergei Sokolov, the deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, said in a telephone interview Monday that the announcement amounted to a public relations move ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in March.

"There are several versions" of who ordered the killing, Sokolov said. "All of them have the right to exist, including the one outlined by Mr. Chaika. . . . He may well be right, but let's first find proof and then make announcements."

Alexei Simonov, the head of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a media freedom watchdog group, said in a telephone interview that Novaya Gazeta editors had grown concerned as investigators appeared to come under pressure from higher-ranking authorities to name Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon living in London, as the person who ordered Politkovskaya's killing.

Berezovsky is one of the most well-known "oligarchs," who made billions by privatizing Russian industry in the 1990s. He has been accused by Putin of trying to undermine his leadership at home and his image abroad. Russian officials have suggested that Berezovsky was also behind the fatal poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko in London last November.

Before he died, Litvinenko blamed Putin for his poisoning and for the murder of Politkovskaya, which he was investigating at the time.

Politkovskaya would have turned 49 on Thursday. She was known internationally for stirring pieces about brutality in the Russian military campaign against separatist rebels in and around the southern republic of Chechnya. But she had a minor presence in Russia's key media outlets, many of which -- particularly television -- are state-controlled. Days after Politkovskaya's death, Putin condemned the murder but added, "I think that journalists should know, and experts should understand, that her ability to influence political life in Russia was extremely insignificant."

Russian journalists who, like Politkovskaya, are open in their criticism of the Kremlin are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their audience. A new law limits public discussion of extremist activities and gives law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that fail to comply. Outside Moscow, reports of local authorities bullying or detaining journalists are routine.

Politkovskaya was the 13th journalist to be killed in Russia since Putin became president in 2000, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. None of those killings has been solved.

Chaika, the chief prosecutor, said Monday that the organized crime group whose leader was arrested in Politkovskaya's case may also be linked to the 2004 killing of Paul Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.

The investigation into Politkovskaya's killing has previously come under criticism from groups abroad. On Monday, Reporters Without Borders released a statement saying the arrests represented "the first concrete sign of progress in the case" but expressing skepticism about Chaika's contention that only people outside Russia were interested in killing Politkovskaya.