Press Release, photographs, 07.10.2013

Activists and leaders of the YABLOKO party took part in the opening of a memorial plaque on the office of Novaya Gazeta where Anna Politkovskaya worked. Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder, and Galina Mikhaleva, Secretary of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, laid a basket of flowers and a black ribbon with the words “Anna Politkovskaya, we appreciate and remember you”.

Anna’s friends, colleagues and next of kin spoke at the memorial ceremony. Dmitry Muratov, Editor-in-Chief of Novaya Gazeta, said in his speech that killers of Anna Politkovskaya had been following their victim by the office of the paper discussing the murder in the nearby cafes. “The evil was close, but neither Anna nor we paid enough attention to the evil, and the reason was worded by Annat Politkovskaya: ‘it is impossible defend oneself, and it is much easier to defend others people’”.

Dmitry Muratov and Oleg Khlebnikov

“I often think, whom would she defend now? She would made intelligentsia abolish what they are used to already now – hatred to migrants, and that migrants are our ‘common enemy’. I think that she would not allow us to get used to the growth of ‘every day’ xenophobia. She would fight against slave traders, rather than these people. It is possible to do it without her, but certainly this is much more difficult,” Muratov said.

Grigory Yavlinsky

“She was braver than it was allowed in Russia, she was more honest than it was allowed in Russia, and she was more talented than it was allowed in Russia. She spoke up and wrote more than it was allowed in Russia, that is why she was killed. She was killed by the system, because she exceeded all its limits. Politkovskaya is a symbol of growth and the future of Russia. And the memory of Anna is very dear to all honest people,” Grigory Yavlinsky told to journalists.

Galina Mikhaleva also recalled other journalists killed when performing their professional duty, “We all knew Anna Politkovskaya well and highly estimated her, and we refer her to ‘our’ YABLOKO journalists murdered in the performance of their journalist duty. All of them were honest and noble people and we all must look up to Anna,” she said.

The ceremony was held by Novaya Gazeta office in Potapovskiy Lane on the anniversary of Anna’s death. On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in five shots in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. The first law suit ended in 2009 in acquittal of the killers, however, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and returned the case to the Investigation Committee. However, the hirer of the killers is still unknown.

The authors plaque are young sculptor Ivan Balashov and architect Pyotr Kozlov. The inscription on the plaque runs: “Anna Politkovskaya, observer of Novaya Gazeta, worked in this building from 1999 to 2006 until her tragic death”.