Dear Putin: Please solve murder of Forbes journalist

Richard Behar, contributing editor for investigations at Forbes, writes an open letter to Russian leader Vladimar Putin, asking him to solve murder of Forbs journalist Paul Klebnikov, killed in Russia 10 years ago.

Behar writes:

Dear President Vladimir Putin,

As you surely know, last Wednesday was the tenth anniversary of the slaying of Paul Klebnikov, the founding editor of Forbes Russia, and the first American journalist assassinated in your country. The White House called for justice, as did U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said “we remain deeply troubled” that the murder—he called it “a sickening punch in the gut”—remains unsolved. “To leave the case undecided means a betrayal of that faith in Russia Paul had,” echoed Steve Forbes, the magazine’s chairman and editor-in-chief. While expressing gratitude to investigators for their efforts, the Klebnikov family vented “their outrage” that the killers have not been punished.

“I don’t think the Russian government has dealt in good faith with us,” Paul’s brother, Peter, told me last week. “As the years have gone by, we’ve gradually lost faith in the people in power’s desire to solve this crime and bring the mastermind to justice.”

A prayer service in Moscow on July 9th was attended by the U.S. Chargé d’affairs and the Chief Political Officer from the American embassy. Stephan Solzhenitsyn, son of Alexander— the late, great Russian novelist and critic of Soviet totalitarianism—showed up. (Paul had interviewed Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1994, and, after Paul’s murder, Alexander pronounced, “He died for the Truth, and for Russia.”)

President Putin, I’ve waited a full week for a pronouncement from you, but there are none.

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