Journalists' deaths linked in Russia

MOSCOW, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Investigators in Russia said Monday links exist between the killings of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and U.S.-born journalist Paul Klebnikov.

Russian prosecutors said some of the evidence in the Klebnikov case is leading in the same direction as the Politkovskaya investigation.

Politkovskaya died from gun-wounds suffered in the entrance to her apartment in Moscow in 2006. Klebnikov met a similar fate in July 2004.

"The same people who were witnesses or contacts of witnesses in Klebnikov's case have come to the focus of our attention," the chief investigator in the Politkovskaya case told the Russian information agency Novosti.

Politkovskaya spoke out against alleged state sponsored atrocities in Chechnya while Klebnikov issued a controversial list of Russia's 100 wealthiest individuals.

Both killings are the subject of conspiracy theories. The FBI investigator in the Klebnikov case disappeared in Iran in April, and there is alleged government involvement in the Politkovskaya case.

Of the 11 people charged in the Politkovskaya case, 10 have been arrested, including several Chechens.