"Novaya Gazeta" Editor in Chief Dmitrii Muratov reported that the publication has recently lost two lawsuits, the combined judgments for which total $1.5 million, Interfax reported.

Muratov said that "I think there is not one newspaper in the country that could pay such a sum. It is intended not as a punishment but as [an order] to destroy."

Muratov noted that in one of the cases lost by the newspaper, the author of the article in question was Sergei Zolovkin, who recently survived an assassination attempt (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 March 2002).

Last month, other journalists with the weekly who ran into trouble were State Duma deputy (Yabloko) and investigative journalist Yurii Shchekochikin, and North Caucasus specialist Anna Politkovskaya (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 and 20 February 2002). JAC

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 6, No. 49, Part I