Natalya Estemirova’s body was found on June 15th of this year.  The award winning journalist and human rights defender was getting too close to the truth.  She paid for it with two bullets.

In Chechnya and indeed elsewhere in that wide expanse of impunity (see Dagestan and Russia), Estemirova was finding hard evidence of Chechnya’s state sanctioned torture. She connected the murders with those responsible. She worked for Memorial, a Russian organization whose main task - among others - was to preserve the memory of abuse incurred under the heavy hand of a Soviet empire.

Memorial has since been awarded Europe’s Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought.  The prize is awarded each year by the European Parliament and seeks to honor those with the courage to face down intolerance, fanaticism and oppression.