Editor-in-chief of the Russian version of Forbes magazine Paul Khlebnikov was allegedly shot dead from a Stechkin machine gun on the evening of July 9, 2004, when he was leaving the editorial office. The offender fired several shots at the journalist from the car. Paul died in the hospital, having experienced a clinical death and not regaining consciousness. Who is behind this murder is still unknown, but law enforcement agencies believe that they are closer than ever to the solution. The role of the customer in this case is assigned to Boris Berezovsky or the Chechen field commander Nukhaev.
Origin and early biography
The Khlebnikov family left Russia in 1918 for political reasons. Khlebnikov's great-great-grandfather, Rear Admiral Arkady Nebolsin, was killed by sailors during the February Revolution. He was a naturally intelligent man and received a good education. He circumnavigated the world, participated in hydrographic work in Petra BayFirst, fought on the battlefields of the Russo-Japanese War.
Pavel Yurievich Khlebnikov was born in New York in 1963. His grandfather, Sergei Vladimirovich, served in the Russian Empire in the Life Guards of Her Imperial Majesty the Lancers Regiment, participated in the First World War and the Civil War. Grandmother, Ekaterina Khlebnikova, was the great-granddaughter of Ivan Pushchin, a Decembrist and Lyceum friend of Alexander Pushkin. In New York, she headed the Russian Children's Charitable Society. Pavel Khlebnikov's father, Yuri (Georgy), was a translator in Nuremberg, headed the service at the UN.
Paul Khlebnikov tried to combine his professional activities with the benefit for Russia, in love with which he grew up. Pavel was raised by his parents in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. In the family, Russian was always considered their native language. The books of Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov were read to the boy by his mother. At the age of six, he did not know English, like his brothers and sister. Paul Khlebnikov earned his first dollar at the age of two on his great-grandmother's glasses. She always lost her glasses and promised 25 cents for the loss. Pavel hid his glasses and then “found them.”
The boy devoted his free time to reading. He knew almost by heart the battle scenes from the novel "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy. Pavel Khlebnikov was an idealist and romantic since childhood. He represented the homeland of his ancestors as Gogol and Dostoevsky, Nekrasov and S altykov-Shchedrin saw it. By the age of seventeen, he definitely decided that he should go to Russia. At first I wanted to work at BAM and even went to the embassy to getdocuments and permission.
The older brothers told Paul a lot about Moscow, Russian traditions, hospitality and the KGB, which carefully watched every American in the USSR. The brothers joked that in their historical homeland a black Volga would follow them all the time. In 1983, Pavel turned twenty years old. He graduated from the University of California and went on his first business trip abroad to the USSR. What he saw exceeded all his expectations - in Moscow, three cars followed Pavel.
Education and career as a journalist
Education Paul Khlebnikov received in the United States. He graduated from high school and college, and in 1984 received a bachelor's degree from the University of California. He specialized in political economy. The very next year, Pavel became a master, having defended a dissertation at the London School of Economics on the personnel policy of the USSR authorities in 1918-1985. The choice of such a topic amazed the teachers, but Pavel successfully defended himself.
In 1991, American journalist Paul Klebnikov received his doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a dissertation on Russia's economic development in 1906-1917 and Stolypin's agrarian reform. The chosen topic no longer surprised the teaching staff. Paul Klebnikov did not want to become a scientist, his main goal was not even journalism, but politics and writing books.
Pavel started working in Forbes magazine in 1989. He analyzed the work of international industrial companies. The correspondent was fluent in five languages: English, Russian, German, French and Italian,so the job was easy for him. In the nineties, the main focus of his research was the "new Russian business". Pretty soon, Khlebnikov was promoted to senior editor.
Godfather of the Kremlin…
Paul Khlebnikov's journalistic career developed rapidly. In 1996, he published a sensational article in Forbes magazine en titled “Godfather of the Kremlin?” In this material, Pavel accused Boris Berezovsky of having links with the mafia in Chechnya, money laundering, contract killings, and fraud. Boris Berezovsky sued Khlebnikov, demanding compensation and a complete refutation of the article. The court satisfied the demands of the oligarch only partially.
The court forced Forbes to abandon only one of the allegations in the material (that Berezovsky was the organizer of the murder of TV presenter Listyev), since the publication simply did not have enough evidence for this thesis. The court did not award any compensation to Boris Berezovsky and did not force the journalist to publish a refutation. The process ended only in 2003.
In 2000, a book by Paul Klebnikov was published, based on a well-known article. In the book, he talked in detail about Boris Berezovsky and claimed that the oligarch controls the Russian government. The publicist meticulously exposed the post-communist authorities on the basis of carefully collected facts. This is what the book "Godfather of the Kremlin Boris Berezovsky, or the History of the Plundering of Russia" is dedicated to. Pavel Khlebnikov cited many facts of participation in the looting of government officials andYeltsin himself.
Book "Conversation with the Barbarian"
Khlebnikov's second book, which was published in 2003, is based on a fifteen-hour conversation between a journalist and Chechen field commander and crime boss Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. He told the publicist about his activities, views on Islam and his gangster career in the nineties. The field commander had connections all over the world. For example, in 1997 he personally met with M. Thatcher and Z. Brzezinski, discussing the prospects for the independence of Chechnya. Here is one of the interesting quotes from the book "A Conversation with a Barbarian" by Paul Klebnikov:
All Islamic terrorism, which we see both in Russia and around the world, has matured from the culture of ordinary banditry. While working on the book, I began to carefully study Wahhabism, which plays an important role in the Chechen movement. Initially, the Wahhabis were ordinary nomads and robbers. Wahhab, the leader of one of the Saudi tribes, just turned out to be a more successful robber than the others.
Opening Forbes in Russia
In 2004, when the management of Forbes magazine thought about opening a branch in Russia, Paul became the only candidate for the position of editor-in-chief. In the Moscow branch of his native Forbes, Khlebnikov did not become his own. He had equal relations with all employees, but he did not have close friends among journalists. Colleagues called him "an incorrigible romantic." Journalists considered him a black sheep.
100 richest people in Russia
June issue of Forbes magazinewith a list of the 100 richest people in Russia was the pride of Paul Khlebnikov. He prepared this list for several months. Moscow colleagues dissuaded Pavel from publishing the list, but the journalist sincerely could not understand why it was not pleasant to advertise his fortune in Russia. After all, in the States to get into such a hundred is prestigious.
In Moscow, after the publication, a scandal broke out immediately. Some were outraged that they were not the first in this hundred. Others did not like the fact that their names were published in the press. The list was published for the first time. Rich Russians have never aspired to publicity. Shortly after the murder of Paul Khlebnikov (the list was published two months before the death of the journalist), this event became one of the main versions.
The journalist did not feel danger and did not expect threats. He did not hire security even after the publication of the scandalous article, believing that in Russia they do not kill for printing. By the way, Berezovsky (one of the main suspects) after the murder of Khlebnikov said that the publicist "could have been killed due to careless handling of facts." According to many colleagues, it was the publication of the recordings of the conversation with Nukhaev that was one of the most risky acts of P. Khlebnikov.
Private life of a journalist
Paul Khlebnikov's personal life was successful. He was married to Helen Train, daughter of financial advisor and powerful banker John Train. Officially, the marriage was concluded in 1991. Three children were born in the marriage. Khlebnikov was a Christian, his spiritual mentorwas father Leonid (Leonid Kalinin).
Murder of an American journalist
The journalist and writer was killed in Moscow in 2004. After work, he left the editorial office of Forbes magazine and headed for the Botanichesky Sad metro station. Paul was followed from the car. On the way to the metro, the car caught up with Khlebnikov, the performer slowed down, opened the window and shot the journalist at close range. He fired nine bullets.
Eight minutes later, the ambulance arrived. Paul Khlebnikov remained conscious. In the car of doctors, he lost consciousness, at the entrance to the hospital, breathing and cardiac activity stopped. Clinical death was diagnosed. The journalist died an hour after the assassination attempt in the hospital.
Incident investigation and trial
The investigation quickly found both the customer and the contractor. According to the police, the perpetrator was a Chechen Dukuzov, and the customer was Khozh-Akhmet Nukhaev. The case also featured Dukuzov's brother, who was involved in spying on the journalist.
In 2006, all the defendants were found not guilty at a jury trial. Where is the performer now? It remains unknown. In 2011, Dukuzov was convicted in the UAE for robbery, in 2015 he was released and returned to Chechnya under a different name.
The investigation of the case is still not completed. According to Forbes magazine, it is now believed that the assassin was ordered by Boris Berezovsky, who died in the UK in 2013. According to the new version, the Chechen commander was only an intermediary. Nothing is known about his fate at present. Some sources indicate that he died in a fewmonths before the assassination attempt on an American journalist.
Boris Berezovsky's involvement
According to the Russian press, Boris Berezovsky in 2004 had a reason to remember his dislike for the American journalist. Of course, he did not like the book "The Godfather of the Kremlin, Boris Berezovsky, or the History of the Plundering of Russia." And then in the list of the richest people in Russia, he was only in 47th place. Perhaps he ordered the murder of a careless journalist. This version remains one of the main ones.
Boris Berezovsky was repeatedly interrogated in London on this subject. The British found out that the oligarch had nothing to do with the murder of Paul Klebnikov, which they handed over to the Americans. Mark Franchetti, a columnist for The Sunday Times, commented on Berezovsky's assassination and involvement:
It seems strange to me that Berezovsky wanted to kill Khlebnikov a few years after the publication of the book. There must be some more pressing reason.
Other versions of the murder
There is a version that the murder could be connected with the journalist's future book, for which he collected facts about the embezzlement of budget funds in Chechnya. He also wrote about influential people from Boris Yeltsin's entourage. And after the publication of the list of the richest people, the police had a huge number of suspects. Many Russian oligarchs were unhappy with the appearance of their name in the article. As a result, twenty volumes were written on the case, but everything turned out to be “waste paper.”
Professional activity could have causedmurders. In 2004, Paul Klebnikov was preparing several more sensational materials for publication. In February of that year, he had some very serious reason to fear for his life. Khlebnikov did not tell anyone about the topic of the material, but he took precautions. The journalist briefly hired bodyguards.
In 2004, the publicist's contract with Forbes expired. He could have automatically extended it and remained in office, but then he suddenly started talking about his successor as editor-in-chief. Colleagues recall that the journalist first spoke about returning to America. He considered it unsafe to transport his family to Russia, which he repeatedly mentioned in conversations with acquaintances.
Practically the only trusted person of Paul Khlebnikov in Moscow was the priest Leonid Kalinin. The journalist even lived with his confessor for some time, but stopped telling him about his professional activities. In the summer of 2004, Pavel did not discuss his future articles with Father Leonid, believing that this might be unsafe. Leonid Kalinin said that Paul was obviously preparing some kind of dangerous material.
After the death of Khlebnikov, several people said they knew what kind of material the journalist was preparing during the last months of his life. They say that this is the topic of organized crime in Tolyatti, but this is also just guesswork. Then (over the past eight years) several local journalists were killed at once. There were rumors that seven criminal gangs of Togliatti were hunting for publicists at once. It is known that when the Ministry of Internal Affairs made an attemptclear AvtoVAZ of bandits, they found traces of at least 65 contract killings.
Recognition and posthumous awards
In 2004 Paul Klebnikov's biography appeared in all media. Then the Committee to Protect Journalists awarded Khlebnikov the International Press Freedom Award. On the anniversary of the journalist's murder in 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Paul Klebnikov not only wrote about business and politics in Russia, but also was "the voice of conscience in the fight against corruption." The statement said that the US government was deeply concerned that the mystery of the murder of an American journalist was not solved.
