Paul Klebnikov Fund
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Paul Klebnikov (; June 3, 1963  – July 9, 2004) was an American journalist and historian of
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. He worked for ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' magazine for more than 10 years and at the time of his death was chief editor of the Russian edition of ''Forbes''. His murder in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
in 2004 was seen as a blow against
investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend m ...
in Russia. Three
Chechens The Chechens ( ; , , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kistin, Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus. ...
accused of taking part in the murder were acquitted. Though the murder appeared to be the work of assassins for hire, as of 2022, the alleged organizers of the murder had yet to be identified. According to another version, widely reported in Russian media, Klebnikov was killed by a close associate to the high-ranking member of linked both to the Russian FSS service and Boris Berezovsky, a
Russian oligarch Russian oligarchs () are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The failing Soviet state left the ownership ...
.


Early life

Paul Klebnikov was born in New York to an
aristocratic Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense economic, political, and social influence. In Western Christian co ...
family of
Russian American Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russi ...
White émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik com ...
s with a long military and political tradition: his great-great-great-grandfather
Ivan Pushchin Ivan Ivanovich Pushchin (Russian:Иван Иванович Пущин; 15 May 1798, Moscow — 15 April 1859, Bronnitsky Uyezd) was a Russian civil servant and Decembrist. In school, he became a close friend of the writer, Alexander Pushkin, due to ...
participated in the
Decembrist revolt The Decembrist revolt () was a failed coup d'état led by liberal military and political dissidents against the Russian Empire. It took place in Saint Petersburg on , following the death of Emperor Alexander I. Alexander's brother and heir ...
in 1825 and was exiled to
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, and his great-grandfather, an admiral in the White Russian fleet, was assassinated by
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s. As a child, he was known as a daredevil including swimming during hurricanes. He attended
St. Bernard's School St. Bernard's School is a private, all-male elementary school in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of Manhattan's Upper East Side. It was founded in 1904 by John Card Jenkins, along with Francis Tabor.
and
Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...
, and graduated from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, with a BA in political science in 1984. He then enrolled in the Officer Candidates School of the
US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...
as a way to test himself, but upon completing the course, declined to take the offered commission. Instead, he pursued a PhD at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
, where he would go on to win the
Leonard Schapiro Leonard Bertram Naman Schapiro (22 April 1908 – 2 November 1983) was a British scholar of the origins and development of the Soviet political system. He taught for many years at the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Po ...
Prize "for excellence in Russian studies". Klebnikov wrote his doctoral thesis on agrarian reform in Russia following the
Stolypin Reforms The Stolypin agrarian reforms were a series of changes to Imperial Russia's agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. Most, if not all, of these reforms were based on recommendations from a committee known ...
that sought to build an independent, progressive, and prosperous peasantry. His thesis was titled "Agricultural Development in Russia, 1906-1917: Land Reform, Social Agronomy and Cooperation". From 1987 to 1988, he lectured at the Institute of European Studies in London. On September 22, 1991, he married Helen "Musa" Train, the daughter of prominent
Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...
banker John Train. The couple would go on to have three children.


Reporting on Russia

Klebnikov joined ''Forbes'' in 1989 and gained a reputation for investigating murky
post-Soviet The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...
business dealings and corruption. In 1996, he wrote a cover story for ''Forbes'' titled "Godfather of the Kremlin?" with the kicker 'Power. Politics. Murder. Boris Berezovsky could teach the guys in Sicily a thing or two.', comparing Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky to the
Sicilian mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...
. The article was published without a
byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably '' Reader's ...
, but was widely known to be Klebnikov's work. Klebnikov soon received death threats, and took a break from reporting in Russia to live with his family in Paris. Berezovsky subsequently sued ''Forbes'' for
libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
in a British court. Because the story had been published in an American magazine about a Russian citizen, the choice of venue was described by several authorities as
libel tourism Libel tourism is a term, first coined by Geoffrey Robertson, to describe forum shopping for libel suits. It particularly refers to the practice of pursuing a case in England and Wales, in preference to other jurisdictions, such as the United Stat ...
. Berezovsky won a partial retraction of the story in 2003. Meanwhile, Klebnikov expanded the article into the 2000 book ''Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia''. A 2001 edition is entitled ''Godfather of the Kremlin: The Decline of Russia in the Age of Gangster Capitalism''. Believed to be based heavily on interviews with
Alexander Korzhakov Alexander Vasilyevich Korzhakov (; born 31 January 1950) is a Russian former KGB general who served as Boris Yeltsin's bodyguard, confidant, and adviser for eleven years. He was the head of the Presidential Security Service (PSB) from 1991 to ...
, the head of security for former president
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...
, the book described the privatization process used by Yeltsin as "the robbery of the century" and detailed the alleged corruption of various Russian businesspeople, particularly focusing on Berezovsky. The book met with mixed reviews in journalistic circles. A review in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' praised it as "richly detailed" and "effectively angry". Klebnikov released a second book, ''Conversation with a Barbarian: Interviews with a Chechen Field Commander on Banditry and Islam'', in 2003. The book is a transcript of a lengthy interview with Chechen rebel leader
Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev Khozh-Ahmed Tashtamirovich Noukhayev (; born November 11, 1954 – presumed dead in 2004), also known as Khozha'','' was a Chechen gangster and politician. Early life He was born on November 11, 1954, in exile (due to the Deportation of the Che ...
, conducted in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
,
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
. In the course of the interview, Nukhayev gives his views on
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
and Chechen society. In the same year, Klebnikov was chosen to be the first editor of the Russian edition of ''Forbes''. Because his wife and children did not wish to move to Russia, Klebnikov agreed with them that he would take the post for only one year. The magazine only put out four issues before his death, including an article covering Russia's 100 wealthiest individuals, which some commentators speculate may have been the reason for his death.


Murder

On July 9, 2004, while leaving the ''Forbes'' office in the city, Klebnikov was attacked on a Moscow street late at night by unknown assailants who fired at him from a slowly moving car. Klebnikov was shot four times and initially survived, but he died at the hospital after being transported in an ambulance that had no oxygen bottle, and delays when a hospital elevator broke down. Authorities described the attack as a contract killing. The publisher of the Russian edition of ''Forbes'' stated that the murder was "definitely linked" to Klebnikov's journalism. Various commentators have speculated that the magazine's recent story on Russia's 100 richest people may have triggered the attack; others suspect Berezovsky of being behind the murder.


Russian investigation

In 2006, prosecutors accused Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev, subject of Klebnikov's book ''A Conversation with a Barbarian'', of masterminding the attack. Three Chechen men—Kazbek Dukuzov, Musa Vakhayev, and Fail Sadretdinov—were arrested and tried in a closed trial for the murder, but all three were acquitted. Sadretdinov was later convicted on unrelated charges and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment, while Vakhayev and Dukuzov had their acquittals overturned by the
Supreme Court of Russia The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation () is a court within the judiciary of Russia and the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law, criminal law and commercial law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts ...
, allowing them to be re-prosecuted. In July 2007, on the third anniversary of the murder, the
U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
protested the continuing failure of the Russian government to find the perpetrators, calling for further investigation. U.S. President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
also appealed directly to Russian President
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
for action. Vakhayev and Dukuzov were scheduled to be retried in 2007, again in a closed trial, but could not be located. On December 17, the trial was postponed again because of Dukuzov's continued absence. The process then "quietly stalled". In July 2009, Russian authorities agreed to reopen the suspended investigation into the killings. They also stated that they no longer believed Nukhayev had masterminded the murder (though they continued to believe he played some role in the attack).


Legacy

In 2004, the
Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists. The '' American Journalism ...
posthumously named Klebnikov one of four winners of the
CPJ International Press Freedom Awards The CPJ International Press Freedom Awards honor journalists or their publications around the world who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment. Established in 1991, the awards are administered by ...
. An organization named the Paul Klebnikov Fund was established in his memory to award an annual courage prize to journalists as well as granting internships to young Russian journalists to work in
Western media Western media is the mass media of the Western world. During the Cold War, Western media contrasted with Soviet media. Western media has gradually expanded into developing countries (often, non-Western countries) around the world. History T ...
. Klebnikov's Exeter classmates endowed an annual Klebnikov Lecture to honor his memory. The first Klebnikov Lecture was held on May 12, 2006, at the 25th reunion of Klebnikov's Exeter class (1981), and featured remarks by ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' correspondent and Exeter alumnus Jon Karp.


Project Klebnikov

Project Klebnikov is a global alliance specifically devoted to developing new information on the Klebnikov murder and to furthering some of the investigative work Klebnikov began. The organization was founded in July 2005, and includes over 20 journalists and partner media companies. The organization has an international representation of investigative journalists, including individuals from '' Vanity Fair'', ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'',
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
's department of journalism, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'',
Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...
, and ''Forbes''. It was launched by eight journalists from Bloomberg, ''Vanity Fair'' and ''Forbes'' on July 9, 2005, the anniversary of Klebnikov's murder. Journalist
Richard Behar Richard Behar is an American investigative journalist. Since 2012, he has been the Contributing Editor of Investigations for ''Forbes''. From 1982 to 2004, he wrote on the staffs of ''Forbes'', ''Time'', and ''Fortune''. Behar's work has also ...
serves as the organization's director.


Books

*


See also

*
Georgiy Gongadze Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze (21 May 1969 – 17 September 2000) was a Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped and murdered in 2000 near Kyiv. He founded the online newspaper ''Ukrainska Pravda'' along with Olena Prytula in 2000. He was born i ...
*
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 ...
*
Walter Liggett Walter William Liggett (February 14, 1886 – December 9, 1935), was an American journalist who worked at several newspapers in New York City, including the ''New York Times'', ''The Sun'', ''New York Post'', and the ''New York Daily News''. In t ...
*
Vladislav Listyev Vladislav (Vlad) Nikolayevich Listyev (; May 10, 1956 – March 1, 1995) was a Soviet, later Russian journalist and head of the ORT TV Channel (now government-owned Channel One). Career Listyev was arguably the most popular journalist and TV ...
*
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 ...
*
List of unsolved murders These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances. * List of unsolved murders (before 1900) * List of unsolved murders (1900–1979) * List of unsolved murders (1980–1999) * List of unsol ...


References


External links

*
Paul Klebnikov speaks about Russian and American rich people
Video from YouTube
The Paul Klebnikov Fund

Project Klebnikov


by Paul Klebnikov

* ttp://en.ria.ru/world/20140709/190869098/Kerry-Marks-Anniversary-of-Klebnikov-Killing-with-Call-for.html RIA Novosti: Kerry Marks Anniversary of Klebnikov Killing with Call for Russian Probe {{DEFAULTSORT:Klebnikov, Paul 1963 births 2004 deaths 2004 murders in Russia Forbes people Alumni of the London School of Economics American expatriates in Russia American magazine editors American male non-fiction writers American people murdered abroad American people of Russian descent American political writers Assassinated American journalists 21st-century American journalists Deaths by firearm in Russia Journalists killed in Russia People murdered by Russian-speaking organized crime People murdered in Moscow Phillips Exeter Academy alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Unsolved murders in Russia Works about organized crime in Russia Writers from New York City