Unfortunately, the 2% clear-up rate has gone widely into circulation and stopping its use and repetition is a tough job. Now Russia Today repeats it. [Please use this revised and more tactful version of my submission, if you will. JC] Always check, and double-check, your sources - that is a basic rule of research and, one hopes, of all good journalism. For this quotation is meaningless as stated. Do you, or the source, mean for last year's murders, OR for the last five years murders? For all murders of journalists in Russia since Putin came to power, or since the Soviet Union collapsed? Do you even mean murdered? Killed could cover the significantly large number of reporters, photographers and cameramen who have died in crossfire situations in Chechnya since 1994 but also in the October 1993 events in Moscow. A real discussion of this problem can be found in "Partial Justice", the IFJ inquiry into deaths and disappearances of journalists in Russia since 1993.The Politkovskaya murder case, now coming up for retrial, is a key test of the barrier which has, until now, prevented prosecution of those who - in the handful of serious cases - planned, paid for and ordered the killing of a particular editor or correspondent. Total impunity, failure to prosecute (or even to investigate seriously?) is still prevalent in some areas (North Caucasus, including Chechnya, and, rather more shockingly, in St Petersburg) but the problem now is more one of partial justice. This means, as far as journalists are concerned, a failure to investigate possible professional motives for their killing, and pursue all those involved. As for the 83% statistic this only applies to the last few years and reflects the definition of "solved" or "cleared-up" used by the Russian police, not the actual level of successful prosecutions. Those, according to RF Supreme Court statistics now available, run at around around 70-75% for murders and attempted murder from 2006 onwards.