Nikolay Andrushchenko, (September 10, 1943 – April 19, 2017), a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n journalist for the ''Novy Peterburg'' newspaper in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, died at the Mariinsky Hospital after being beaten. He was a well-known critic and part of the

opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia Opposition to the government of President Vladimir Putin in Russia can be divided between the parliamentary opposition parties in the State Duma and the various non-systemic opposition organizations. While the former are largely viewed as bein ...

. Andruschenko was part of a critical documentary about Putin called 'Who is Mr. Putin' that linked President

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

with the organized crime, which is banned in Russia.

Personal

Nikolay Andruschenko was born in 1943 in the city of Leninogorsk in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. He earned a doctorate in mathematics and physics at the

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. In the early 1990s, he started his political career in the St. Petersburg City Council, which lasted for 3 years. He lived in St. Petersburg for a long time. He leaves a wife and two children, a son and a daughter.

Career

Nikolay Andruschenko started his political career in the early 1990s. He became a member of the St. Petersburg City Council. Because of what he experienced during the end of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

he wanted to change Russia, especially by investigating the

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

in his country. He is the co-founder of the newspaper ''Novy Peterburg'' for which he wrote until his death in 2017. In 2007 ''Novy Petersburg'' was shut down after two official warnings because of two articles that were published. One article from Andruschenko and another one by Konstantin Chernyaev. ''Novy Peterburg'' went to court and in 2009 they won their case and could publish again. He was attacked twice in the months before he died, because of some documents that could have been related to investigations he was working on. He was famous for his articles about

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

and his critic against the Russian president Vladimir Putin. He gave several interviews about his contacts with Putin in the 1990s when Andruschenko was working as a

lawmaker A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...

and Putin was working for the Mayor

Anatoly Sobchak Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak ( rus, Анатолий Александрович Собчак, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ sɐpˈtɕak; 10 August 1937 – 19 February 2000) was a Soviet and Russian politician, a co-author of the ...

. Andruschenko said that the center of Putin's politics had always been money and nothing else.

Controversies

In 2007 he was charged with

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

and insult by Yunis Lukmanov, the chairman of the housing committee of the city. He was found guilty by a Russian court and had to pay a fine. After that Andruschenko decided to renounce his Russian

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

. Two years later in 2009 he was charged with insult of Dmitry Mazurov, a member of the Russian prosecutor. He was found guilty and had to pay 20.000 Russian rubel but the prosecutors dropped the cases of libel and extremism. The original charges were based on articles about oppositions protest and about a trial of four men that had been convicted of murdering a student.

Death

Nikolay Andruschenko was on his way to a business meeting March 9, 2017 when a group of unknown people beat him until he lost consciousness. Several hours later he was found near his house with head trauma. He was rushed to the Mariinsky Hospital where doctors tried to save his life with brain surgery, but left him in a medically-induced coma. Although he started breathing on his own again, he died on April 19, 2017. Denis Usov, editor of the ''Novy Peterburg'' believed that the attack was linked to Andruschenko's articles about corruption in St. Petersburg. The attack was investigated by the 78th police department in the Central District of St. Petersburg, but according to Alevtina Ageyeva, director of ''Novy Peterburg'', "The police are unlikely to put much effort into the investigation, since Andruschenko wrote a lot about the arbitrariness in the police, and he was not liked for his intransigence." The attackers are still unknown.

Context

Andruschnko is the seventh journalist to die in Putin's second presidency. The day after Andruschenko was assaulted another journalist was attacked. 35-year old Yevgeny Khamaganov died on March 17 because of his injuries. All the killed journalist wrote about and investigated cases of corruption on a local or national level.

Impact

Nikolay Andruschenko invested several cases of corruption after the end of the Soviet Union. He was known as a Vladimir Putin critic and for his articles about human rights and police misuse of authority.

References

External links

"Who is Mr. Putin?" (Russian)

"Who is Mr. Putin?" (English Subtitles)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrushchenko, Nikolay 1943 births 2017 deaths Deaths by beating in Europe Journalists killed in Russia Murdered Russian journalists People murdered in Russia People from Ridder, Kazakhstan