German media executive murdered in Moscow
Pastor Dale Morgan
German media executive murdered in Moscow*
Luke Harding in Moscow
Monday July 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Detectives were today investigating the brutal murder of the deputy head
of a major European publishing company who was stabbed to death in her
Moscow dacha using an antique dagger.
Marina Pisareva, 47, was found dead on Sunday morning at her house in
the quiet, pine-forested Odintsovo district, just west of Moscow,
prosecutors said. She had been stabbed "in the neck and chest".
Detectives discovered the murder weapon - a rare collector's dagger that
belonged to Pisareva and was taken from her country home - at the scene.
Pisareva worked for the German media giant Bertelsmann AG as deputy head
of its Russian publishing house. Prosecutors said that her killing could
have been linked to her professional activities.
Her murder follows the deaths of several journalists in Russia,
including the Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead last
year outside her Moscow flat, and Paul Klebnikov, the US editor of the
Russia edition of Forbes magazine.
"Early reports suggest that nothing was stolen from her home. A knife
from the murdered woman's private collection is believed to be the
murder weapon," prosecutor's told the Russian news agency Interfax.
Bertelsmann is one of the biggest and most influential media companies
in Europe. It owns Random House publishers and the RTL broadcasting
group that has television channels and radio stations in ten countries
across the continent. The Russian operation publishes a series of
consumer magazines.
A spokesman for Bertelsmann in Germany confirmed that Pisareva had been
killed, but declined to provide further details. The spokesman said the
media group was still "trying to get a feeling for the situation".
RTL is Europe's biggest broadcaster. It holds a 30% stake in REN-TV, an
entertainment-oriented Russian national channel that has come under the
control of Kremlin-friendly businesses in the past two years.
It was previously critical of Vladimir Putin's regime - but like other
hostile TV channels in Russia found itself swallowed up by new owners
supportive of the president.