Russian-language
Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians. It was the ''de facto'' and ''de j ...
weekly newspaper
Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...
in
Abkhazia
Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...
. It was founded on 18 June 2004 by Inal Khashig. It currently has a circulation of 1100 and its price is 10
ruble
The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are s ...
.
February 2009 death threat to Inal Khashig
Initial reports
In February 2009 Inal Khashig was the centre of a controversy when several media, among which
Caucasian Knot
Caucasian Knot () is an online news site that covers the Caucasus region in English and Russian. It was established in 2001 and Grigory Shvedov is the editor-in-chief.Abaza TV, reported that on 6 February, while at the embankment in
Sukhumi
Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...
, Khashig had been invited into a car containing David Bagapsh, a nephew of
Sergei Bagapsh
Sergei Uasyl-ipa Bagapsh, (4 March 1949 – 29 May 2011) was an Abkhaz politician who served as the second President of Abkhazia from 12 February 2005 until his death on 29 May 2011. He previously served as Prime Minister of Abkhazia f ...
and head of his presidential guard, Kondrat Samsonia, General Director of A-Mobile and deputy of the Sukhumi Municipal Assembly and Adgur Tarba, head of the Municipal Advertising Agency. According to the story, Khashig was then driven to a sub-urban wasteland where he was threatened the same fate as
Dmitry Kholodov
Dmitry Yuryevich Kholodov (; 21 June 1967 – 17 October 1994) was a Russian journalist who investigated corruption in the military and was assassinated on 17 October 1994 in Moscow.
Early life and education
Kholodov was born in Zagorsk (now Se ...
and
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russians, Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005).
It was her repor ...
lest he change the tone of his publications. The direct motivation for the threat was said to be the critical article Беспрограммная любовь (''Love without programme'') published on 3 February in Chegemskaya Pravda about the congress of
United Abkhazia
United Abkhazia (, ) is a political party in Abkhazia. United Abkhazia was founded on March 25, 2004, as a socio-political movement, with the specific goal of presenting a single opposition candidate for the October 2004 presidential elections.
held on 27 January.
Initial reactions
On 18 February, 31 Journalists signed a declaration addressed to President Bagapsh in which they demanded his intervention. Likewise, opposition politicians requested the law-enforcement agencies to intervene and members of the Public Chamber called upon all political actors to settle disputes within the law only. On 19 February, Khashig's original article was republished by the Russian news agency REGNUM.
Presidential spokesman
Kristian Bzhania
Kristian is a given name in several languages, and is a variant spelling of Christian.
Males with the given name Kristian
* Kristian Digby (1977–2010), British television presenter and director
* Kristian Doolittle (born 1997), American basketb ...
denied the involvement of people from the president's entourage in the incident, and he said that he had spoken with Inal Khashig on the telephone and the latter had not mentioned the purported events. He also hinted that the conversation between Khashig and the three men had taken place in a waterfront cafe.
Khashig's statement
Khashig initially refused to comment on the reports. He then on 21 February released a statement in which he confirmed that the incident had taken place, while downplaying its seriousness. He denied reports which claimed that he had been taken to the woods and had been beaten. He also denied that he had been taken anywhere by car. Instead, he said that the men had walked to a deserted beach near
and that, taking into account that he knew two of the men quite well, the conversation had not been out of line. Khashig did confirm that Kholodov and Politkovskaya had been mentioned, while saying that due to their youth the men probably did not appreciate the semantic load of these names.
Khashig stated that he had not responded to the reports earlier as he did not want to exacerbate an already dramatic situation, and that he was forced to change his mind when the story grew out of proportion. He thanked people for coming to his defence, but stressed that he did not want to be seen as a martyr or a sacrificial lamb. He also wished for the three involved men not to be regarded as crooks. According to Khashig, the principal lesson of the episode was that a journalist is free to raise any sensitive issue, and that those who feel hurt should challenge the journalist through legal channels only.
Bagapsh's statement
Following Khashig's declaration, President Bagapsh released a statement in which he said that he agreed with Khashig that problems can only be solved within the legal framework. He added that he had been concerned about the reported incident, as he had always been a staunch defender of the freedom of speech, but that he had waited with his reaction until all the facts had become clear. He condemned the opposition parties who had not done so and who had used the opportunity to "wage an information war against the government".
June 2009 printing problems
In the week of 5 June 2009, the newspaper's printing house Alasharbaga refused to print it, giving the lack of profit from publishing the newspaper as its reason. Inal Khashig accused the government of being behind the action with the upcoming 12 December 2009 presidential election in mind. This was denied by Prime Minister
Alexander Ankvab
Aleksandr Zolotinskovich Ankvab ( ; ; ka, ალექსანდრე ზოლოტინსკის ძე ანქვაბი, tr; ; born 26 December 1952) is an Abkhaz politician and businessman who was the president of Abkhazia fro ...
, who argued that Alasharbaga was a private business, and by Presidential Spokesman
Kristian Bzhania
Kristian is a given name in several languages, and is a variant spelling of Christian.
Males with the given name Kristian
* Kristian Digby (1977–2010), British television presenter and director
* Kristian Doolittle (born 1997), American basketb ...
, who pointed out that the newspaper had been warned in advance by its printing house and that Alasharbaga had not stopped publishing the larger government-critical newspaper Ekho Abkhazii.