Russian opposition paper to arm reporters

EDITORS of Russia’s opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta are planning to give their employees firearms training and arm them to protect themselves against possible attacks.

They said yesterday the decision came amid a spike in violence against dissenters in Russia – including an attack this week on a radio journalist, who was stabbed in the neck at the offices of the liberal Echo of Moscow radio.

“If the state is not ready to protect us, we will protect ourselves,” Sergei Sokolov, a deputy editor at Russia’s top opposition newspaper, said.

“When journalists find themselves helpless in the face of lawlessness and indiscipline of law enforcement agencies, there is no other way.”

Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov said a number of staff would undergo training with arms and the paper would purchase “traumatic weapons”.

The use of firearms is tightly regulated in Russia.

Traumatic weapons that use rubber bullets can be used for self-defence, but can also inflict lethal damage. “I will arm the newsroom,” Muratov said.

“We will also supply journalists with other security means that I can’t talk about.

“We will conclude an official agreement with the Russian interior ministry.”

Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Pavel Kanygin said he was ready to use non-lethal weapons to defend himself.

Potential criminals might be deterred by the knowledge that journalists from Novaya Gazeta carried weapons, he said.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said he saw no reason to provide extra security for journalists.

“Unfortunately, everyone of us can become a target of a madman,” Dmitry Peskov said.

Novaya Gazeta was free to adopt any measures as long as they were in line with existing laws, he said.

Over the past two decades, Novaya Gazeta has lost several journalists to contract-style killings, including an investigative reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in Moscow in 2006. – AFP