Yuri Shchekochikhin is known in Russia as a fighter against crime and corruption in state bodies. He has built an impressive career in journalism and politics. Investigative journalism has always been the focus of his work. It is possible that participation in one of them indirectly became the reason for his death.
From the biography of Yuri Petrovich Shchekochikhin
The future journalist and public figure was born on June 9, 1950 in the city of Kirovabad (Azerbaijan). Yuri's father was a military man. At the age of seventeen, Shchekochikhin already works as a correspondent for Moskovsky Komsomolets. Then he got a job at Komsomolskaya Pravda. Here he led the youth section "Scarlet Sail" for several years.
Shchekochikhin received higher education. Behind Yuri Petrovich is the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1975.
The beginning of the creative path
In 1980, the journalist became a special correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta, and then headed the department of investigations of the publication, until 1996 was a member of its editorial board. Shchekochikhin's work left a noticeable mark on Russian journalism.
At the end of the 80s, Yuri Petrovich published a material in which it was said for the first time that there was organized crime in the Soviet Union. It was an interview with police lieutenant colonel Alexander Gurov. After this publication, its author and Gurov became famous throughout the country.
Political career of Yuri Shchekochikhin
Soon Shchekochikhin became a People's Deputy of the USSR; he was elected from the Luhansk region. The journalist was a member of the so-called Interregional Deputy Group, and was also a member of the country's Supreme Soviet Committee on Combating Crime. Shchekochikhin also fought with the privileges of officials.
Yuri Petrovich did not abandon his journalistic investigations. His program on ORT, which began to air since 1995, was closed six months later. The author of the program believed that the reason for this was the material on the conflict in Chechnya. Shchekochikhin said that the country's leading banks began this military campaign.
Before the beginning of 1996, Shchekochikhin became a deputy of the State Duma and became a member of the Yabloko faction. He chaired a committee in charge of security and an anti-corruption commission in the legislature.
Since the mid-90s, Shchekochikhin held the post of deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Novaya Gazeta. In this publication, he oversaw the investigation department.
Crime fighter
Yuri Petrovich participated in investigations that were related to corruption in the prosecutor's office. A number of the cases in which he was involved were related to furniture smuggling and money laundering.
Shchekochikhin's last business trip was a business trip to Ryazan. Here he collected materials about law enforcement officers who initiated criminal cases on the orders of the local leadership. Suddenly, the journalist fell ill, which he reported to the management of his newspaper. He immediately returned to the capital, where he was admitted to the Central Clinical Hospital. Shchekochikhin's kidneys and lungs began to fail, his skin burst.
Doctors could not save Shchekochikhin. On July 3, 2003, he passed away. In the official diagnosis of doctors, a rare allergic syndrome was indicated as the cause of death of the journalist. However, the relatives were not given the conclusion of the death: medical officials referred to medical confidentiality. Colleagues of Yuri Petrovich and his relatives do not exclude that the journalist conducting the investigation was poisoned.
