Press release, 9.10.2018

A rally to commemorate Anna Politkovskaya, a Novaya Gazeta journalist, was held in St. Petersburg on 8th October. She was murdered at an entrance hall of the apartment where she lived in Moscow on 7 October, 2006.

For the first time in 12 years the city government did not authorise the memorial action. Nevertheless, people came to the ceremony as well as police and intelligence service agents. The organisers of the action put Anna Politkovskaya’s picture by the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to the victims of political reprisals. The participants of the memorial action brought flowers and lit candles.

Members of Yabloko Political Committee Boris Vishnevsky and Lev Shlosberg addressed the participants of the action. Alexander Shishlov, St. Petersburg Human Rights Ombudsman, also laid flowers to the monument.

Lev Shlosberg, an MP at the Pskov Region Legislative Assembly, said that “Anna Politkovskaya was murdered for her freedom of speech. She was telling and writing the truth. They took revenge on her. This was a response to her words because the authorities could not find any other way to react to Anna Politkovskaya’s work”.

Shlosberg reminded that those who ordered the crime had not been found yet. “Regardless of the fact who pulled the trigger, behind the crime are the authorities and the policy that is being implemented”.

According to Shlosberg, Anna Politkovskaya tried to stop war and bloodshed. “She was a very independent person. I can hardly say that there are absolutely fearless people, we all experienced fear. However, Anna managed to overcome her fear and set the example for everyone that one can and should overcome his fear.”

“She was not a politician. She did not enter politics but her articles attracted much attention. She was a journalist. A journalist who writes what she think is right and says what she thinks is right at the right time. She was truly a free journalist.”

Lev Shlosberg noted that “we all understand where these bullets came from. We all understand the crime will not be solved until Putin remains in office. We also understand that Anna Polikovskaya was did what she did consciously. She consciously said what she said. She knew she put herself in danger. She know that she could pay a price for her words. But it did not stop her”.

“We still have freedom of speech in our country and this is largely thanks to what Anna Politkovskaya wrote, did and said. For all of us 7th October will always be the day when Anna Politkovskaya was murdered,” the politician told those present.

In 2014 Moscow City Court sentenced Rustam Makhmudov and Lom-Alu Gaitukayev to life imprisonment pronouncing the former the perpetrator and the latter the organiser of the crime. Three other men who were involved in the crime – Sergie Khadzhikurbanov, Ibragim Makhmudov and Dzhabrail Makhmudov – were sentenced to 20, 12 and 14 years’ imprisonment.  Former policeman Dmitry Pavluchenkov also admitted his guilt and was sentenced to 11 years in a colony. The organisers of the crime have not been found yet.