Russia must solve US reporter's murder - family

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) The murder of US reporter Paul Klebnikov more than two years ago in Moscow highlighted the dangers to journalists brave enough to delve into Russia's underworld where crime and politics overlap.

But his killers -- and those who ordered the murder -- are still on the loose. The trial of two Chechens who prosecutors said had carried out the murder collapsed in May when a jury acquitted them.

Klebnikov's family are now trying to renew pressure on Russian authorities to solve the case.

''We want to find out who ordered this killing, which individual or individuals,'' Michael Klebnikov, 51, Paul's elder brother, told Reuters by telephone from the United States. ''We are very concerned about the pace of the investigation.'' Klebnikov, the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, was shot four times as he left his office in central Moscow on July 9, 2004. He died of his injuries in a lift which stalled at a Moscow hospital.

The killing of such a high-profile US reporter sparked enormous controversy and aroused concerns in Washington about the safety of journalists in Russia, where many contract killings have gone unsolved since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Klebnikov, a US citizen whose grandparents -- Russian nobles -- fled Russia during the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, delved into a serpentine world where Russian business, politics and organised crime overlap.

When asked who he thought killed Paul, his brother said: ''This is the big question. And we are not convinced this is a question that has been tightly sewn up and buttoned up.'' A source close to the case told Reuters the investigation was now focusing on a possible link between Klebnikov's murder and his interest in the possible misappropriation of Russian funds intended for the reconstruction of Chechnya, ravaged by a decade of fighting between Chechen rebels and Russian troops.

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