His Excellency Boris Yeltsin
President of Russia
Office of the President
Moscow
Russian Federation

Vienna, 29 December 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemns the killing of Vadim Alferyev, a journalist working for Segodnyashnyaya Gazeta in Krasnoyarsk.

Mr. Alferyev was beaten to death in the entrance to his apartment building on Wednesday, 27 December 1995. We understand that he had been writing about the economic crimes in the region and that he had received repeated threats to his life.

Mr. Alferyev’s murder is only the latest in a series of murders of Russian journalists in recent years. In October 1994, Dmitri Kholodov, a journalist working for Moscow’s most popular daily Moscovski Komsomolets, was killed when a briefcase he had been given by a contact exploded when he opened it in the paper’s newsroom. On 1 March 1995, Vladislav Listyev, one of Russia’s most popular television journalists, was fatally shot by unidentified gunman as he entered his Moscow apartment block.

IPI, a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, is deeply concerned that investigators have been unable to find the killers of either Mr. Kholodov or Mr. Listyev, despite assurances of a full investigation under Your Excellency’s personal control.

We therefore strongly urge that you authorize an immediate and thorough investigation into the killing of Mr. Alferyev and that those responsible for this hideous crime are brought to justice. We further urge that you disclose the findings with regard to all three murders.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director