Claim:

Russia on Monday announced that 10 people have been arrested in the killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, including law enforcement officers and a Chechen crime boss accused of organizing the slaying.

Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said the 10 will soon be charged with the Oct. 7 killing of Politkovskaya, who revealed human rights abuses in war-scarred Chechnya, and he suggested her murder was plotted outside Russia to discredit its leadership.

Counter-claim:

His assertion was likely to be met with disbelief by Kremlin critics, who say Putin and his government are too quick to blame foreign countries and foes abroad—often Berezovsky—for the nation’s problems.

Politkovskaya’s killing came less than two months before the radiation poisoning death in London on Nov. 23 of Berezovsky associate and former KGB counterintelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, which further damaged the Russian leadership’s reputation abroad.

Litvinenko, who had been investigating Politkovskaya’s death, had said Putin was behind her slaying and also blamed the Russian leader for his own poisoning.

Footnote:

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Politkovskaya was the 13th journalist killed in a contract-style murder in Russia since Putin took office in 2000, and nobody has been convicted in any of the slayings—a record that has led to doubts about the government’s dedication to freedom of the press.