Russia`s Medvedev Meets Editor Of Slain Reporter

`The sincerity with which the president delivered very important words was very important,` he added.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday met the editor of an opposition newspaper to express condolences over the murder of a reporter, in a rare show of respect for Kremlin opponents.

Medvedev's invitation to the editor of the Novaya Gazeta for talks at the Kremlin was in marked contrast to the style of his predecessor Vladimir Putin, who made dismissive remarks when another reporter at the newspaper was murdered.

Editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov said the Russian president expressed his sympathies over the murder of trainee reporter Anastasia Baburova, 25, who was shot dead in a Moscow street on Jan. 19 along with a prominent human rights lawyer.

No one has been arrested in connection with the killings.

Crusading journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya -- whose 2006 murder caused an international outcry over respect for democratic freedoms in Russia -- worked for the same newspaper.

"Condolences were the main point of the meeting," Muratov told Reuters. "These were sincere condolences and in my view an expression of true grief at what happened."

"The sincerity with which the president delivered very important words was very important," he added.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who with wealthy Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev co-owns Novaya Gazeta, was also at the Kremlin meeting.

After Politkovskaya's murder, Putin, who has since become Russian prime minister, dismissed allegations the Kremlin was behind her killing and angered her colleagues by saying her work had little impact on Russian politics.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Novaya Gazeta has been fiercely critical of a Kremlin clampdown on the opposition under Putin and is one of the few major media outlets in Russia that is still independent.

Its journalists are renowned for investigative reports on sensitive issues such as high-level corruption and violation of human rights, including in the restive North Caucasus region.

Medvedev is a a former corporate lawyer, who analysts say, owes his election as president last year to an endorsement from his mentor and close ally Putin.

But Medvedev has projected a different stlye from his predecessor, placing greater emphasis on protecting human rights and promising to liberalise political life in Russia and give a breathing space to the harried opposition.

In another gesture showing he took a different approach to the opposition media, Medvedev said he appreciated some of the newspaper's efforts to expose society's ills, his spokeswoman said.

"The president showed interest in materials concerning Nazi and xenophobic groups collected by the newspaper," spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.

"He stressed the importance of consolidating civil society in the fight against this evil," she said.

Neither Putin nor Medvedev, made any comment immediately after the killing of Baburova and the human rights lawyer, Stanislav Markelov.

Their silence led to criticism in some sections of the media that they were indifferent to the killings.

"The president said he did not want to come out with public statements in the first day so as not to provoke investigators into taking his words as orders," Muratov said.