A memorial plaque on Politkovskaya's house in Moscow has been destroyed for the fourth time.

The memorial plaque restored by activists on the facade of the building where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered has been destroyed for the fourth time.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on January 18, vandals smashed a memorial plaque bearing her name on Lesnaya Street in Moscow, on the building where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered. Activists from the "Civil Initiative" movement replaced the plaque with a temporary one, but on January 19, it, too, was destroyed. Representatives of a far-right organization designated as terrorist claimed involvement in the destruction of the first plaque. The man who smashed the memorial plaque was fined a thousand rubles, although he denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the plaque "fell and broke on its own." By January 22, activists had replaced the broken plaque again, but the temporary plaque had been destroyed for the third time, and a resident of Politkovskaya's building reported that the temporary plaques had been intentionally destroyed. On the evening of January 23, a third temporary plaque was installed.

In Moscow, at 8/12 Lesnaya Street, a memorial plaque has disappeared for the fourth time from the wall of the building where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered, Mediazona reported today*.

The last homemade plaque hung for less than a day—it was installed on the evening of January 23, the publication states.

A photo is attached to the message, showing the plaque installed yesterday no longer on the wall of the building.

"Now we'll have to wait until some 'turbo-patriot' tears this plaque down, too. It's a battle of nerves to see who will back down first—activists or neo-Nazis, or whoever else doesn't like the memorial plaque in memory of Anna Politkovskaya on the facade of the building where she lived. Just think, in October it will be 20 years since her murder. And the mastermind and the real organizers of this crime are still at large," a reader of the "Caucasian Knot" with the nickname maple commented earlier on the message about the installation of the fourth memorial plaque.

Anna Politkovskaya, known for her articles about 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 recognized as the direct perpetrator, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya".

Last Interview Anna Politkovskaya gave to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent an hour and a half before her death. In this interview, the journalist commented on the career prospects of Ramzan Kadyrov 1 .

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 her murder have already been released, but the mastermind behind the killing has never 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" 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 Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of the residents of Chechnya.

* are listed as foreign agents.

** Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.