Vera Politkovskaya: No one in Russia values my mom's legacy

Vera Politkovskaya, the daughter of murdered Russian journalist, human rights activist and Vladimir Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya, has released a new book. The German version is titled "Meine Mutter hätte es Krieg genannt," which roughly translates to "My mother would have called it war." The book was co-authored with Sara Giudice.

Anna Politkovskaya became a well-known figure in the 1990s when she worked as a reporter for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, especially for her reporting from the northern Caucasus region. Politkovskaya dedicated much of her career to covering the Second Chechen War. She was killed on October 7, 2006, in Moscow.

The title of Vera Politkovskaya's latest book alludes to Russia's war in Ukraine, which in Russia is referred to merely as a "special military operation."

Politkovskaya moved to Italy after Russia invaded Ukraine, where she now works as a freelance journalist. DW spoke with her at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

DW: How and when did you decide to write your book?

Vera Politkovskaya: In our family, we thought for years about how much is known about my mother's work, how she stayed in Chechnya and what she wrote about. At the same time, little is known about her personality. My mother's life was not only about work. There was also another side that almost no one knew. We often spoke about how good it would be if one of us described this other side of her. When I was offered to write this book, I immediately said yes.

What was your mother like?

She was difficult because a simple person would hardly be able to perform and endure the kind of work she did. She had a rather complicated personality, which showed itself at work and among the family. As children, my brother and I often experienced our mother's very clear ideas of how our lives should develop. Our education was very close to her heart, and it was vital to her. And, of course, there were disagreements because we were teenagers and wanted to do other things.

What did you think about your mother's work at Novaya Gazeta when you were young? Did you support her?

I was a kid in the early 1990s and then a teenager. I was busy with my own life, so I can't say I paid close attention to her work. My mother began focusing on Chechnya in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Then, she encountered her first problems concerning her security. She knew what she was doing. For us, the main consequences of her work were that she sometimes discussed safety concerns with us and urged us to be careful.

DW: In your book, you write that your mother suspected she could die…

Yes, that began after her colleague Yuri Shchekochikhin died. He was poisoned. After that, my mother strangely began talking about how it must be a beautiful death if she were killed as Yuri Shchekochikhin was, should that be her fate. She said it would be nice if it were a poisoned bouquet of roses. She said she would hold the bouquet, take a deep breath and die a beautiful death for a woman.

But jokes aside, there were discussions about how she wanted to be buried, what to do when she died, where she kept all the documents and money in the house. Of course, we did not discuss this often, but it was a topic.

DW. What was your first thought that came to your mind when you learned that Russia had attacked Ukraine?

It came as a shock. Although the Western media had warned this would happen, of course, I did not want to believe it would. A few days before the war began, there was that famous speech by Putin (in which he declared the recognition of the independence of the "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics"). When I heard that speech, I realized war would come.

Nevertheless, the scale of this war was hard to comprehend. The first rational thought that came to me after the war began — and after recovering a little from the shock — was that I must leave the country. If we — and by we, I mean Russia — were teetering on the brink of an abyss all this time, we have plunged into it now.

DW: What has to happen for public opinion in Russia to change?

According to independent sociological studies, no more than 30% of the Russian population supports this war. And I think that's accurate. The people don't want war. Support for Putin is a different problem. Some people in Russia believe that nobody other than Putin can rule such a vast country with so many issues. I won't criticize these people, but of course, I think they are wrong.

It is clear that the system that is in place in Russia will not disappear as long as Putin is there, and everything will continue in this spirit. Most likely, he will remain in power until 2036. But people are wrong to think that once Putin is gone, we will immediately get a wonderful, modern Russia. There will be no rapid change after his departure. New significant problems will arise In 2036 when he's gone.

A power struggle will erupt that will most likely be bloody and ruthless. Then Russia will be unstable for years, and only after many more years, in the best case, will someone reasonable come to power. Do you realize what time frame we are talking about? I don't know if I will live to see it.

DW: Your mother's book "In Putin's Russia" and her articles predicted many things that came to pass after her death, including that the wars in Chechnya are only the beginning and what Putin's rule would lead to. Why were her warnings not taken seriously in Russia or the West?

People who read her works at that time in Russia and the West believed she was greatly exaggerating. But as history has shown, none of it was exaggerated.

What legacy did your mother leave behind?

To call things as they were. To realize that you are not wrong just because you're in the minority. And to act according to your own perspective and your own assessment of the situation. If we are talking about her legacy in journalism, I hope that it will be honored somewhere outside Russia. But this I can say with certainty: No one in Russia values her legacy.

This interview was conducted by Marina Baranovska and was translated from German.