Overview
- Twenty years after her 2006 killing, courts have convicted the shooters but investigators have not identified who ordered the hit, leaving the central question of responsibility unresolved.
- The probe was undermined by procedural errors, lapses in pursuit of suspects and the 2009 murder of Politkowskaja’s first lawyer, Stanislaw Markelow, which critics say points to systematic failures.
- Politkowskaja’s reporting on torture, corruption and the Chechen wars drew repeated threats from powerful figures, including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and forced her into temporary exile before she returned to Russia.
- Nowaja Gazeta continues to publish cautiously inside Russia despite losing its print and web licences in 2022, the killing of multiple staffers through 2021, and ongoing personal risks to journalists.
- Her death has become a lasting symbol used by press freedom advocates and by Dmitri Muratov’s 2021 Nobel recognition, and it keeps attention on impunity in attacks on Russian journalists and what that means for public information.