Paul Klebnikov (Russian: Павел Юрьевич Хлебников, romanized: Pavel Yurievich Khlebnikov; June 3, 1963 – July 9, 2004) was an American journalist and historian of Russia.
[4][5] He attended St. Bernard's School and Phillips Exeter Academy,[6] and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a BA in political science in 1984.
[4] He then enrolled in the Officer Candidates School of the US Marine Corps as a way to test himself, but upon completing the course, declined to take the offered commission.
[7] Instead, he pursued a PhD at the London School of Economics, where he would go on to win the Leonard Schapiro Prize "for excellence in Russian studies".
The book is a transcript of a lengthy interview with Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev, conducted in Baku, Azerbaijan.
[4] On July 9, 2004, while leaving the Forbes office, Klebnikov was attacked on a Moscow street late at night by unknown assailants who fired at him from a slowly moving car.
[21] Various commentators have speculated that the magazine's recent story on Russia's 100 richest people may have triggered the attack; others suspect Berezovsky of being behind the murder.
[22][23] In 2006, prosecutors accused Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev, subject of Klebnikov's book A Conversation with a Barbarian, of masterminding the attack.
Sadretdinov was later convicted on unrelated charges and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment, while Vakhayev and Dukuzov had their acquittals overturned by the Supreme Court of Russia, allowing them to be re-prosecuted.
[24] In July 2007, on the third anniversary of the murder, the U.S. Department of State protested the continuing failure of the Russian government to find the perpetrators, calling for further investigation.
[28] In 2004, the Committee to Protect Journalists posthumously named Klebnikov one of four winners of the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards.
[34][35] The organization has an international representation of investigative journalists,[36] including individuals from Vanity Fair, 60 Minutes, New York University's department of journalism, The Economist, Bloomberg News and Forbes.