On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya returned to her home in Moscow. She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building at the age of 48. Twenty years later, her murder remains one of the most notorious crimes against a journalist in Russia, and the judicial response is incomplete: the people involved in the execution and organization were convicted, but not the person who ordered the murder.
Politkovskaya works for “Novaya Gazeta“ and makes the war in Chechnya a central theme of her journalism. She writes about murders, kidnappings, torture and corruption, often talking to victims and their relatives. In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2001, he described his role as follows: “I see myself as a conduit of information from one place to another, as a means of showing Russians what is really happening in Chechnya“.
Direct participants convicted
The investigation led to several court cases. In 2012, former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in preparing the murder. In 2014, five people were convicted for their role in organizing and carrying out the crime. Two of them received life sentences, while the others were sentenced to terms ranging from 12 years to life.
However, these convictions do not answer the key question: who ordered the journalist's murder. As early as 2011, Dmitry Muratov told Reuters: “I really hope that the person who ordered this crime is not someone whom someone in power loves so much that this would prevent him from being found guilty.” His words remain relevant two decades after Politkovskaya’s death.
European Court criticizes investigation
In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of “Mazepa and Others v. Russia“ that the Russian authorities had identified and convicted some of the direct perpetrators, but had not taken adequate action to find the guarantor or guarantors. The court stated that the investigation had been focused for too long on one version and had not sufficiently investigated possible links between the murder, Politkovskaya's work and representatives of the Russian services or the Chechen administration.
Politkovskaya was killed while preparing new material on alleged torture by Chechen security forces. Her publications on the North Caucasus, as well as her books on Chechnya and Vladimir Putin's rule, brought her international recognition and numerous awards, but also made her a target of threats.
Today, her name continues to be associated with journalism that puts human rights above political circumstances. The verdicts in the case provide a partial judicial answer, but the lack of an established guarantor leaves the murder of Anna Politkovskaya without a final end.
Sources: bta.bg, rferl.org, reuters.screenocean.com