Russia detains Chechens in slain reporter probe -paper

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (Reuters) Russian law enforcement officials have detained two Chechens on suspicion of killing investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, pro-Kremlin daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported today.

The newspaper quoted sources close to the investigation as saying the two men were detained following an analysis of photos made on the day of the murder from military satellites.

The newspaper said military forces had been on high alert on that day as it coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's birthday. A spokesman in Russia's Prosecutor General's Office declined to comment on the report.

Politkovskaya, shot dead outside her home in October, had been strongly critical of Kremlin policy in Chechnya, where she alleged officials used abduction and torture in their campaign against separatist insurgents.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has denied reports that prosecutors had opened a criminal inquiry into police officials in Chechnya as part of the probe.

New York-based journalists' rights group, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), says 13 journalists have been killed in contract-style hits since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.

CPJ has said nobody has been successfully prosecuted for any of the 13 killings and that this record had a very negative effect on independent news coverage in Russia.

Victims included Paul Klebnikov, editor of Forbes Russia, who was shot as he left his office and Igor Domnikov, a reporter from the same newspaper as Politkovskaya, who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.

The murder of Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Putin, drew worldwide condemnation.

German president Angela Merkel raised the Politkovskaya murder investigation with Putin during a meeting in January and was told that Russian justice was working ''very intensively'' but that there were no results so far.

REUTERS AB RK1645