"Lawyer Markelov and Journalist Baburova Shot Dead in Moscow"

Here is a report on the killings from Global Voices that includes some translated excerpts from some Russian bloggers.

From that story:

"Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, 34, was shot to death Jan. 19 as he walked from a news conference along Prechistenka Street in central Moscow. Journalist Anastasia Baburova, 25, who accompanied Markelov, was also shot as she tried to intervene; she died in hospital a few hours later. Baburova was a freelance journalist for Novaya Gazeta.

Many Russian bloggers reacted with shock and outrage to the broad-daylight shootings of Markelov and Baburova. Below are some of the initial responses, translated from Russian.

LJ user tupikin:

[…] I've known Stas [Stanislav] for God knows how many years, from the early 1990s perhaps, from the time he was a law student. Then he finished his studies, cut his long hair short and became a lawyers who was defending the truth, defending human rights even when it seemed that it was impossible to defend them.

He worked in Chechnya against the federals, he worked against the police, he worked against the Nazis.

And he, damn it, was an incredibly cheerful and optimistic person, despite all these nightmares that accompanied him in life. […]"