Moscow: Politkovskaya Award handed over to relatives of Rocchelli and Mironov

The Award "Kamerton" (Tuning Fork) named after Anna Politkovskaya was handed over in Moscow to relatives of the Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian interpreter and journalist Andrei Mironov, who perished in Ukraine. As reported by relatives at the awarding ceremony, before the recent events in Ukraine, Rocchelli and Mironov also worked in Northern Caucasus.

The ceremony was held on September 7 during a charity concert dated to the International Solidarity Day of Journalists, marked on September 8.

Vsevolod Bogdanov, the head of the Union of Journalists of Russia (UJR), said that since 1993 about 350 journalists were killed in Russia. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed at the UJR that in most cases attacks on journalists were related to their professional activities: the above number also includes missing journalists and victims of attacks.

Andrea Rocchelli's sister said that her brother and Andrei Mironov met in 2009. "They worked together in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Andrea Rocchelli covered the events of the "Arab Spring" in Tunisia and Libya, but it was in Russia that he found a pole of attraction of his interests," she said.

Mironov spent much time in Chechnya since 1994; he was in the midst of the hottest events, said Svetlana Gannushkina, the chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance" and a board member of the International "Memorial".