Anna Politkovskaya, memory of the journalist and author
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On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was found shot and killed in the elevator where she lived in Moscow. The murder of the famous journalist and author created a great deal of attention. A few years later, 5 men were sentenced to prison for the murder. These are supposed to be known assassins. It is not known who they were given the task of liquidating Anna. The killings were probably paid for by oligarchs close to Putin.
Who was Anna Politkovskaya?
She was a journalist and an author. Born in New York to Russian-Ukrainian parents who worked as diplomats in the United Nations. The family traveled home to Moscow where she grew up and studied, Her first job was in the newspaper Izvestia where she wrote until 1999, then for Novaya Gazeta. She also had her own news column in the Norwegian newspaper Ny Tid. Through her journalistic work and writing, she took a critical look at parts of Russian society and especially through Russia’s war in Chechnya.
Through her critical journalism, she was disliked by nationalist forces in Russia. Also among several colleagues in journalism, she was disliked for her criticism of Russian society and the direction she saw Russia go in. After many threats, she chose to stay in Austria for a while in 2001.
A Russian diary
The very last book Anna Politkovskaya wrote was ironically entitled “My Russian Testament” in Norwegian and “A Russian Diary” in English. The book is a description of the miserable conditions that large sections of the population live under and about the cynical corruptions that have grown under President Putin.
“A dirty war” is a book that is actually a collection of texts from what she had written in Novaya Gazeta. She wrote about Russia’s war in Chechnya and exposed state corruption. The analysis of Russia and Russians is still relevant and important to understand what is happening in the country today.
“A smal corner of hell” is her description of the war in Chechnya. The book describes the abuse that was committed. She did something so unusual as to travel to the war zone herself to make her portrayals and not do as most newspapers in Russia, swallow what came from public Russian propaganda uncritically.
For her writing and journalism, she received a number of international awards. Among these are the Norwegian Writers’ Association’s Freedom of Expression Award, which she received in 2003. The Olof Palme Award (Sweden) in 2004 and the Anmesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism in 2001.
Anna Politkovskaya one of many killed Novaya Gazeta journalists
She was not the first and not the last journalist in Novaya Gazeta to be killed. The list of killed Russian journalists and opposition leaders of the Russian regime is long. But it was her assassination that really made the world outside Russia open their eyes to the conditions under which journalists and critics of Putin’s regime live and how far the regime is willing to go to stop a sharp pen, a thinking brain and a sharp tongue.
Who will actually pay for the murder, we will probably never get an answer. Attempts to stop critical journalism and the opposition are likely to continue as long as Russia is a society in which freedom of expression and the free press are gagged. Anna Politkovskaya will never be forgotten.
Assassination of Russian opposition and journalists
| Name | Years | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Igor Domnikov | 2000 | Journalist for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Killed with a hammer. He wrote articles on business corruption. |
| Sergei Yushenkov | 2003 | Opponent of Russia's war in Chechnya. In opposition to Putin and registered his own party a few hours before he was shot and killed outside his own home in Moscow. |
| Yuri Shchekochikhin | 2003 | Died in hospital after what many believe was poisoning. He uncovered corruption in the FSB and the Russian judicial system. Also wrote critical articles regarding Russia's war in Chechnya. |
| Aleksandr Litvinenko | 2006 | Critical of the regime. Accused the regime of corruption and human rights violations. Poisoned by the radioactive substance polonium-210 in London. |
| Anna Politkovskaya | 2006 | One of several journalists in Novaya Gazeta killed. She wrote critical articles about the war in Chechnya. Shot outside his apartment in Moscow |
| Anastasia Baburova | 2009 | Worked for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta when she was shot on an open street in Moscow |
| Natalia Estemirova | 2009 | Russian human rights activist. Among other things, she worked on human rights violations in Chechnya. She was dragged into a car and later found executed in a nearby forest. |
| Sergej Magnitskij | 2009 | Killed in prison when he was beaten and did not receive medical attention afterwards. Was allegedly arrested for tax evasion. He was in the process of exposing large-scale corruption among government officials. |
| Boris Nemtsov | 2015 | Critical of Russia's war in Ukraine, of corruption and an authoritarian regime. Shot on an open street in Moscow. A man from Chechnya was later convicted of carrying out the murder against payment of 15 million rubles. Who was behind the payment has never been known. |
| Jelena Grigorjeva | 2019 | She was recently found shot and strangled near her home in St. Petersburg. She was a well-known LGBT activist. |