Khlebnikov: Faith in sanity

10 years ago, the editor -in -chief of the Russian version of the magazine "Forbs" was shot

Ten years ago, the chief editor of the publication, American journalist Pol Khlebnikov, was shot at the office of the Russian Forbes. He came to Russia because he believed in it. He wanted to offer new journalism to a country with a growing economy and a rapidly developing political system, but managed to release only three magazine numbers. Until now, neither the killer nor the customer has been found. On the tenth anniversary of the death of a journalist, those who knew him will gather at the House of Muravyev-Apostles in Moscow to recall the "romance of Russian capitalism."

Khlebnikov, who worked in the American Forbes for many years, headed the Russian edition of the magazine with new ideas. Maxim Kashulinsky, General Director and head of the Slon.ru portal, and then-Deputy Khlebnikov-recalls that the American journalist believed in the great prospects of Russia: “I came to Forbes at the end of the summer of 2003-even before Khlebnikov joined us. And we worked with him a little less than a year. He had a very strong faith in the fact that Russia and the Russian economy were raising that he was raising, that he was raising. We will see the growth of both private companies and entrepreneurship that all

He had a very strong belief that Russia would gradually develop

It will gradually develop. "According to Kashulinsky, Khlebnikov had in mind that Russia would also develop as a democratic country, distinguishing himself from other countries." He believed that we reached a certain growing trend in economics and politics, and when the story with Khodorkovsky arose and said that Yukos would go bankrupt, Pavel did not believe that this would not happen. He believed in the sanity of the Russian government, ”Kashulinsky recalls.

Khlebnikov had the idea to transfer American approaches to business journalism to Russia, which needs to be developed, since Russian business itself is growing. “For example, he said that each article must necessarily contain a conclusion. And that the journalist writing about the business must do it the same as the theater critic who writes about the theater. These were the words of one of the great editors of the American Forbes, but Pavel often repeated them and this principle adhered to this principle,” continues Maxim Kashulinsky.

A fresh approach for that time was the language that Khlebnikov called for writing articles about the economy. "He said that even economic articles should be written by spoken language - as if one person tells another a certain interesting story. This approach was new in Russia, and we adopted it greatly."

The descendant of the Decembrists

Khlebnikov came to the United States from Russia, which they left during the October Revolution. It is even believed that Paul Khlebnikov is a descendant of the Decembrist Ivan Pushchin. That is why the organizers decided to arrange an evening of his memory in the estate of another Decembrist- Ivan Matveevich Muravyov-Apostol.

The future editor "Forbes" was born in 1963. At first, he received a bachelor's diploma of political sciences at the University of California in Berkeley, and then a doctoral degree at the London School of Economics, where he studied Peter Stolypin's reforms. Since 1989, Khlebnikov has been working in the Forbes magazine, where his specialization has become reports on the post -Soviet business in Russia, as well as corruption.

In 1996, he published an sensational article on the oligarch Boris Berezovsky "The Cross Father of the Kremlin?" And in 2003, his book “Conversation with Barbar” was published, which consists of an interview with the Chechen field commander Kozh-Ahmed Nukhaev and comments on them Khlebnikov himself.

The answer is romance

On July 9, 2004, three unknown people, having arrived in a car, shot a journalist from a machine gun right near the editorial office of the Russian Forbes. The investigation considered the version that the customer of the murder was the same field commander, the hero of his book. We also found suspects in the execution of the order. However, the jury just justified them. And the field commander, as long as it is believed, was killed shortly before the attempt on Khlebnikov.

Even the version of the involvement of Boris Berezovsky in his murder was considered. But one way or another, neither the customers of the murder nor its performers are still installed.

Exactly a year before his death, on July 16, 2003, Paul Khlebnikov, then also - the senior editor of the Forbes magazine, in the issue of the Radio Liberty program, Caucasian Chronicles, dedicated to Chechnya, he spoke about his conversation with Barbar that had just published. “The topic of“ new barbarism ”was especially important to me - a phenomenon, which, by the way, is not only in the Islamic world. This is a serious threat, although it is now associated, of course, with Islamic extremism,” Khlebnikov said in an interview with RS.

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