Prosecutors investigating the gangland-style slaying of a Moscow-based American investigative journalist were focusing Monday on the possibility that the killing was linked to his work, a view shared by many observers in Russia’s political and business circles, reports the Los Angeles Times. The most widely voiced suspicion was that Paul Klebnikov, 41, the editor of Forbes magazine’s recently launched Russian edition, was the victim of a contract killing ordered because the magazine in May published a list of the 100 richest Russians.
Meanwhile, Michael R. Caputo writes in the Washington Post that Klebnikov “was the real deal,” Klebnikov, a longtime specialist in Russia who shuttled between New York and Moscow, was named earlier this year to lead Forbes’ new Russian publication. Caputo writes, “His murder brings clarity: Nothing has changed. Brutal criminals still run amok in Russia, operating with impunity and no fear of prosecution.”
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-klebnikov13jul13,1,3102384.story?coll=la-home-