Yelena Tregubova (right), a Russian journalist, who published a critical book about Vladimir Putin and his environment, fot a political asylum in Great Britain. She escaped the Russian Federation after the bomb exploded outside her apartment. Returning home would have been a mortal danger. A few years later, in similar circumstances, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered (17-APR-08).
Written by Inna Komar/HRH Moscow
Sources: http://www.svobodanews.ru, http://www.iht.com, http://www.news.bbc.co.uk, http://www.hro.org
Yelena Tregubova, a former Kremlin reporter for Russia´s leading daily newspaper Kommersant, in 2003 penned the highly critical book about President Vladimir Putin and his environment “Tales of a Kremlin Digger,” in which she accused Putin of curbing freedom of speech, but also described scandalous details such as her alleged intimate private dinner with Putin when he was still the country´s top security official.Several months after her book was published, Tregubova escaped injury when a small bomb exploded outside her apartment.
In 2005 Tregubova filed her application for political asylum to Britain´s Home Office she was afraid to return to the Russian Federation.”For me coming back would be a suicide,” Tregubova said. “I am convinced that if I return my life would be in mortal danger.” Tregubova declined to provide details about who was threatening her and how, citing an agreement with her lawyer.
In April 2008 Britain has granted political asylum to her. The decision to grant asylum to Yelena Tregubova could irritate Moscow, which is already locked in a row with the government over the 2006 murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.The Home Office declined to confirm if Tregubova had been granted asylum, saying the government did not comment on individual cases.”This is an immense relief,” said 34-year-old Tregubova. “This is a very big, a very bold step (by the British government).”
