As the United States has developed under President Bush the much-desired friendlier relationship with Russia, we have ignored a disturbing development in Moscow that casts a heavy cloud over that relationship.

On July 9, Paul Klebnikov, the American-born editor of Forbes Magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down as he left his office in Moscow, making him the 15th journalist to be murdered in Russia since 2000, and showing once again that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to practice their trade.