Project Klebnikov

Paul Klebnikov, the 41-year-old top editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was one of the few reporters working at the nexus of post-Soviet politics, big business and the global spread of multi-billion dollar organized crime conglomerates. His murder in Moscow on July 9th, 2004, was a brutal blow for investigative journalism in Russia. B... ut as long as it remains a mystery, it also represents a threat to investigative journalism worldwide and a vicious attack on the rule of law. The account of the first American reporter killed contract-style in Russia never got much traction in the West. It was a story without a Nielsen audience, and convoluted as well, set amid a tangle of Kremlin power struggles, corrupt oligarchs, military and intelligence cabals, embezzlement of foreign aid, Chechen terrorists and Russian organized crime elements ranging from Moscow to Chechnya to London and New York. Klebnikov once wrote that the corrupt Yeltsin era was the worst disaster to befall the Russian people since the Nazi invasion of 1941. But the present era is as afflicted with secrets and intrigue as any that has come before it. Klebnikov spent his entire career working to expose the hidden interests controlling nearly every aspect of Russian society. The assassination not only silenced his voice but reinforced the idea that violence against journalists is an effective way of maintaining that control. Left unanswered, his death dims the prospect that a free media and revitalized civic institutions can help Russia meet the challenge of systemic corruption. Few reporters and editors, however, are capable of telling such a difficult tale. The financial and physical risks are enormous. Any Western news organization or individual reporter taking on even one thread of Klebnikov's material must contend with a pair of crippling disabilities: a steep learning curve of exceptionally complicated relationships and the extreme reluctance of sources, whose cooperation could prove fatal. Meanwhile, the otherwise talented and ...Read More