The memorial plaque on Politkovskaya's house was destroyed again.
A homemade plaque in memory of Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya, installed on the facade of her building on the night of March 3, was destroyed in less than a day.
As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on January 18, the 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. Most of the temporary plaques installed by activists after that lasted less than a day. By March 2, 26 plaques had been destroyed, including 25 temporary ones. On the night of March 3, activists pasted the 26th homemade plaque on the wall.
Most of the plaques repeat the original text from the broken memorial plaque: "Anna Politkovskaya lived in this house and was vilely murdered on October 7, 2006." Some plaques alleged neo-Nazi involvement in the destruction of memorial plaques. Representatives of a far-right organization, designated as terrorist, claimed involvement in 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."
The twenty-sixth memorial plaque, voluntarily affixed by activists to the facade of Anna Politkovskaya's house in Moscow, was torn down on the afternoon of March 3. Like most of the previous ones, it did not stay in place for even one day.
“Handmade plaques continue to disappear from the wall of the building where Anna Politkovskaya was killed in less than a day,” reports SOTAvision*.
The channel's image shows that the plaque is missing from the spot where activists have repeatedly placed it. Just above it stood a granite memorial plaque, broken on January 18th; the lines of a stenciled inscription about Politkovskaya's murder remain painted over with black paint.
Any civic expression, whether 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 government in Russia. Impunity encourages acts of vandalism committed without direct orders from above, human rights activists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" indicated.
In January, one of the building's residents admitted to destroying a temporary plaque. "Yes, I'm breaking it! And who gave you permission to put it up? She didn't live here, she had a safe house! This is my house! I didn't give permission!" she said. She also noted that she wasn't the one who destroyed the original plaque, but that the plaque "was always in her way." 69-year-old Kadyrov supporter Galina Shustova regularly tears down temporary signs and bouquets of flowers and takes them to the nearest trash bin, Victoria Artemyeva noted in a February 17 article for Novaya Gazeta.
Anna Politkovskaya, known for her articles on the war and human rights violations in Chechnya, was murdered in Moscow on October 7, 2006. The court found that Lom-Ali Gaitukayev had orchestrated the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rustam Makhmudov has been identified as the direct perpetrator, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya".
Anna Politkovskaya's last interview was given to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent an hour and a half before her death. 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.
The "Caucasian Knot" is publishing materials dedicated to Politkovskaya on the thematic page "Politkovskaya and Estemirova," which also contains materials about Anna's friend, journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of Chechen residents.
"Caucasian Knot" publishes materials dedicated to Politkovskaya on the thematic page "Politkovskaya and Estemirova," which also contains materials about Anna's friend, journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of Chechen residents.
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