The plaque on Politkovskaya's house has been restored for the 24th time.
The 24th temporary plaque has appeared on the wall of the building where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on January 18, a memorial plaque, which had hung for almost 20 years on the wall of the building on Lesnaya Street in Moscow where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was shot, was smashed for the first time. Civil Initiative activists replaced the plaque with a temporary one, but on January 19, it, too, was destroyed. Most of the temporary plaques installed after that lasted less than a day. On February 26, unknown individuals destroyed a memorial plaque for the 24th time – they smashed a plaque once and 23 times they destroyed plaques that activists had restored.
Representatives of a far-right organization, designated as terrorist, claimed responsibility for the destruction of the first plaque. The man who smashed the plaque was fined 1,000 rubles, but he denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the plaque "fell and broke on its own." One of the plaques, installed by Yabloko activists, remained up for a week and a half, but was also destroyed on February 6. Afterwards, activists painted the original text from the broken memorial plaque onto the facade ("Anna Politkovskaya lived in this house and was vilely murdered on October 7, 2006"). Restoring the memorial for the ninth and eleventh times, activists attached a plaque near the house on Lesnaya Street with the text: "Here in 2026, neo-Nazis destroyed the memorial plaque to Anna Politkovskaya."
Activists installed a memorial plaque to Politkovskaya near her house and laid flowers next to it. This is already the 24th attempt to restore the memorial on Lesnaya Street, RusNews reports today.
As can be seen from photos from the scene, a bouquet of mimosas, tied with a black ribbon, hangs near the entrance.
Activists plan to continue hanging the plaque until it remains permanently on the building where Anna Politkovskaya died. According to SotaVision*, this is the 23rd attempt to restore the memorial.
Any civic expression, be it a plaque in memory of Anna Politkovskaya or a "Last Address" sign for a victim of Stalin's repressions, provokes active aggression among supporters of the authorities in Russia. Impunity encourages spontaneous acts of vandalism, committed even without direct orders from above, human rights activists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" indicated.
Anna Politkovskaya, known for her articles on the war and human rights violations in Chechnya, was killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006. The court found that Lom-Ali Gaitukayev organized the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rustam Makhmudov was found to be the actual perpetrator, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya".
Anna Politkovskaya's Last Interview An hour and a half before her death, Anna Politkovskaya gave to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. In this interview, the journalist commented on Ramzan Kadyrov's career prospects.
In 2025, on the 19th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder, residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg brought flowers to her grave, the Novaya Gazeta office, and the memorial to the victims of repression. Some of those convicted in the case of her murder have already been released, but the person who ordered it has not yet been convicted, Politkovskaya's colleagues recalled.
On the fifth anniversary of Politkovskaya's murder, journalists and human rights activists at a rally in Tbilisi highlighted her contribution to the fight for freedom of speech, demanding that those who ordered her murder be identified.
"Caucasian Knot" publishes materials dedicated to Politkovskaya on the thematic page "Politkovskaya and Estemirova", which contains materials and about Anna's friend, journalist and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of the residents of Chechnya. We have updated the apps for Android and Android. href="https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BB/id1154933161">IOS! We would be grateful for criticism and ideas for development both in Google Play/App Store and on KU pages in social networks. Without installing a VPN, you can read us on Telegram (in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia - with VPN). Using a VPN, you can continue reading "Caucasian Knot" on the website as usual, and on social networks: Facebook**, Instagram**, "VKontakte", "Odnoklassniki" and X. You can watch the "Caucasian Knot" video on YouTube. Send messages to +49 157 72317856 on WhatsApp**, to the same number on Telegram, or write to @Caucasian_Knot.
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