«Stbut that the girls of the next generation have more rights, freedoms and possibilities than mine. Luckily, some are already getting busy.” Vera Politkovskaya was 26 years old when her mother Anna, a journalist from Novaja Gazeta, was murdered in the entrance hall of her house in the center of Moscow on 7 October 2006. («Next to the body the police found the shell casings. The weapon that had killed her had been left there. A clear sign that it was of a contract killing”).
Her painful story led her to become an even more combative and courageous woman. Journalist like her mother, Vera has just told the story in the book A mother. The life and passion for the truth of Anna Politkovskaya (Rizzoli) written with the Italian journalist Sara Giudice.
«My mother was an inconvenient person, not only for the Russian authorities, but also for ordinary people. She wrote the truth, naked and raw, about soldiers, bandits and civilians who ended up in the meat grinder of war. He spoke of pain, blood, death, dismembered bodies and broken destinies» he writes in the memoir.
Vera Politkovskaja © Isabella De Maddalena/opale.photo
He had to leave Russia
Last year Vera had to leave Russia after a series of threats against her daughter Anja, born in March 2007, just a few months after her mother’s murder. “At school she was immediately threatened and bullied. She was often reminded by her peers of hers, obviously offensively, which family she came from.’
Until March 2022 Vera was one of the authors of the program Prav!Da? (pravda means “truth”, prav also means “I’m right, I’m right”, and “da” means “yes”). Then the mood changed. And she resigned.
Today he lives in exile in an undisclosed location with his family. Vera, you speak for the first time of her mother. She says that “in Russia everyone quickly forgot about Anna Politkovskaya because keeping the memory of people like my mother is dangerous”.
What prompted you to do it?
I wanted to tell it. Only people close to her knew about her life and her past. Some of them have disappeared over time. This is why the book seemed to me the right occasion to remember everything. I’m not eternal either. We are living in a difficult time after the outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
During the recent “victory” parade in Moscow, Putin said that “the world is at a turning point, a war against us”. How do you see Russia today?
He is in a state of perpetual trauma. She was even before, to tell the truth, and not only now, under Putin’s regime. If we talk about this historical moment, I notice many changes, but in a negative way. I see no signs of an improvement in the situation or of a near future in which Russia will finally be “a happy country”. Russia falls more and more into a dark and unpredictable reality. It will take several decades to get out of it.
Vera Politkovskaja and Fabio Fazio in “Che Tempo Che Fa” (Photo by Stefania D’Alessandro/Getty Images)
Vera Politkovskaya: “Human rights no longer exist”
How do you see human rights in your country?
Today human rights, as understood in the West, do not exist. Not only that, but in recent times politicians and public figures have insisted on criticizing the introduction of these conceptions in Russia, or on distorting their meaning. Now the not entirely clear “traditional values” are opposed to the rights of the person. Result: the activity of some people on social media leads to criminal proceedings, the LGBT movement is effectively banned, all opposition media have been blocked or shut down. Russia has withdrawn from the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. If one digs a little deeper, one discovers that there is no longer even the space to try to defend human rights.
Was being a woman an extra difficulty in your job for you?
Obviously. And there have also been many challenges, mainly because misogyny is a fairly widespread sentiment in Russia and for some Russians it is even part of those traditional values I mentioned earlier. However, to be honest, in many countries this sentiment is at least as common as in Russia, and in some even more so. If we then contextualize everything from a historical point of view, it hasn’t been that long since women at least obtained the right to vote. And now, as then, the female part of the world still has to fight to get the same chances as men. This is why continuing to conquer one’s rights is the most important task for all women on the planet.
Vera Politkovskaya: «Journalism died with my mother»
Fabio Fazio, Roberto Saviano and Vera Politkovskaja in “Che Tempo Che Fa” in February 2023 (Photo by Stefania D’Alessandro/Getty Images)
She chose the same job as her mother: in the book, she writes that free journalism “died with her and no longer exists”.
Unfortunately, today in Russia it has become propaganda, and free voices are forced to remain silent». Does our profession still make sense today in the crossfire of fake news? Yes, certainly. The role of journalism, despite all the advances of technology, remains vital. Obviously, only highly qualified journalism can combat this phenomenon. Unfortunately, fake news has invaded its area of action, often almost uncontrollably. It is no longer enough to separate the important news from the background news: the truth of the lie sometimes appears as even more credible than the truth itself.
What do you dream for today’s little girls?
I dream that they will continue the fight started by their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Generation after generation, we will eventually bring home the victory in this world of men.
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