We will post our Politkovskaya memorial content on Friday evening and will not post again to the blog until Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, we are pleased to announce the following upcoming events related to her memory, in New York, London and Brussels, thanks in part to Jeremy Putley (if you know of any other such events, please post them as a comment):

Brussels, October 3, 2007:

One Year after Anna Politkovskaya's Murder: Where Is Russia Heading and What Is the Position of the EU in this Regard?

A briefing by Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch
7 Avenue des Gaulois
1040 Brussels
Metro: Merode
9:30 am

Speakers:
Tanya Lokshina, DEMOS center (Russia)
Oleg Orlov, MEMORIAL Human Rights Center (Russia)
Sacha Koulaeva, Head of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Desk, FIDH
Lotte Leicht, EU Director, Human Rights Watch
Dick Oosting, Director, Amnesty International EU Office

One year after Anna Politkovskaya's murder, the human rights situation in Russia remains bleak. Journalists continue to risk their lives, civil society is openly curtailed and torture and disappearances remain common, particularly in the Northern Caucasus.

What has the EU done to that end, and what more is needed? Leading human rights NGOs invite you to attend a press conference to address these questions.

The press conference will include the participation of two prominent Russian human rights defenders who will be in Brussels for the EU-Russia human rights consultations taking place on the same day.

Please RSVP to Juliette Le Dore.

Almut Rochowanski
Coordinator, Programs and Advocacy
Chechnya Advocacy Network
almut@chechnyaadvocacy.org
www.chechnyaadvocacy.org
(1) 212 459 9363
(1) 646 467 0637 (mobile)


October 6:

The Harriman Institute and the Barnard Slavic, Theatre and Music Departments present: A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya

James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary
Broadway and 121st Street
New York
7:00pm

Created by Amy Trompetter
Music composed by Alexander Bakshi
Featuring Barnard and Columbia Students

A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya commemorates the life and death of a Russian journalist, who persisted in her clear-eyed reporting on the war in Chechnya despite having been poisoned and issued multiple death threats. She was shot on October 7, 2006 while entering her Moscow apartment. A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya features new music by renowned Moscow-based composer, Alexander Bakshi, and the visual poetry of Amy Trompetter's giant puppetry. At the top of his field in the Russian theater world, Alexander Bakshi liberates and stretches sound to express narrative and dialogue. Amy Trompetter’s iconoclastic puppets, ranging from the tiny to the gigantic, honor Anna’s life and death, her tenacious observation of indefensible war, her bold expose of political folly, and her lament for the suffering of women and children.

To reserve tickets, please call the Box Office at 212-854-5638.


October 7:

The Life of Anna Politkovskaya: A Panel Discussion

Refectory, Union Theological Seminary
Broadway and 121st Street
New York
5:00pm

Participants:

Ann Cooper, Coordinator, Broadcast Program at the Columbia Journalism School, and former Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists
Rachel Denber, Acting Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division
Mary Holland, NYU School of Law
Michaela Pohl, Vassar College

Moderator: Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Director, Harriman Institute

The panel discussion will be followed by a brief reception.

Attendance of the panel discussion does not guarantee seats at the performance of the Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya at 7pm. Please reserve your tickets at the Box Office (212-854-5638).


October 7, 2007:

The Harriman Institute and the Barnard Slavic, Theatre and Music Departments present: A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya

James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary
Broadway and 121st Street
New York
7:00pm

Created by Amy Trompetter
Music composed by Alexander Bakshi
Featuring Barnard and Columbia Students

A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya commemorates the life and death of a Russian journalist, who persisted in her clear-eyed reporting on the war in Chechnya despite having been poisoned and issued multiple death threats. She was shot on October 7, 2006 while entering her Moscow apartment. A Requiem for Anna Politkovskaya features new music by renowned Moscow-based composer, Alexander Bakshi, and the visual poetry of Amy Trompetter's giant puppetry. At the top of his field in the Russian theater world, Alexander Bakshi liberates and stretches sound to express narrative and dialogue. Amy Trompetter’s iconoclastic puppets, ranging from the tiny to the gigantic, honor Anna’s life and death, her tenacious observation of indefensible war, her bold expose of political folly, and her lament for the suffering of women and children.

To reserve tickets, please call the Box Office at 212-854-5638.


At the Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ

RAW in WAR - Anna Politkovskaya Awards
Fri 5th October, 7pm (please note the earlier start)

Price: FREE

With John Sweeney (BBC), Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize laureate), Natasha Kandic (human rights lawyer from Belgrade), the recipient of the first RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award and Mariana Katzarova (founder of RAW in WAR).
The event is organised by RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR).


Sun 7th October, 4.30pm Price: £5.00

Followed by Q&A with filmmakers Jean Michel Carré and Jill Emery

Location: Frontline club, 13 Norfolk Place, London, W2 1QJ

A year after the murder of renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and coinciding with Vladimir Putin’s 55th birthday, The Putin System takes an in-depth look at the rise of Russia’s controversial president. A pawn in the KGB system, Vladimir Putin patiently, and invisibly played all the rules of the game to reach the throne of power, never forgetting his true allegiance. Since March 2000, the Kremlin’s grand arbitrator, has unscrupulously orchestrated a new system: The massacre in Chechnya, in the name of Russian sovereignty, the quasi abolition of a free press, the crushing of political opposition and of democracy, the “privatization of the state” by government oligarchs, the elimination of “enemies” inside and outside Russian territory. Any opponents to Putin’s system are the enemy within, the American “wolf” and the West, the enemy without. Added to the sale of nuclear and conventional weaponry, oil and gas are Putin’s new weapons, his empire and his challenge to the world. From the communal flat in St Petersburg where he was king of the gang, to the Kremlin Palace The Putin System shows the methodical rise to power of a man who has employed every means to become one of the most important and authoritarian leaders in today’s world. The worst is perhaps still to come…

"When you control the past, you control the present, when you control the present, you control the future" George Orwell and Vladimir Putin…

Produced and Directed by: Jean-Michel Carré and Jill Emery
Length: 95 mins


Thu 18th October, 7.30pm Price: £7.00

With Mary Dejevsky (The Independent), Andrew Jack (The Financial Times), Darya Pushkova (Russia Today Channel) and Prof Robert Service (Oxford University). Moderated by Nick Paton Walsh (Channel 4 News).

Location: 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ
A year after Anna Politkovskaya’s murder and the beginning of the Litvinenko affair and with just five months to go before presidential elections, Russia’s relations with Britain and other western countries are increasingly strained.

In the last year alone, aside from the Litvinenko affair and the resulting diplomatic expulsions, tensions have grown over Czech and Polish plans to host the US missile defence shield and over disagreements on the future of Kosovo. For the first time in nearly two decades Russia is beginning to flex its international muscles. Now the Kremlin has announced an increase in military spending and put long-range bombers back in the air adding to a growing sense that a new Cold War may be in the offing.

Our panel discusses Russia’s relations with the west and the reasons behind their deterioration.

Mary Dejevsky – columnist and editorial writer for The Independent.

Andrew Jack – former Moscow Bureau chief of the Financial Times, author of Inside Putin's Russia: Can There Be Reform Without Democracy?

Darya Pushkova – London bureau Chief of Russia Today TV Channel.

Prof Robert Service – Professor of Russia History, St Anthony’s College, Oxford University. Author of A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin.

Moderated by Nick Paton Walsh Foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News. Formerly Moscow correspondent for the Guardian (2002 - 2007).