02:17, 27 January 2026

The memorial plaque on Politkovskaya's house has been restored for the seventh time.

The sixth temporary plaque on Anna Politkovskaya's house. Photo: Ekaterina Grakhovskaya / Telegram channel ZPCh

Moscow activists have restored the memorial plaque on Anna Politkovskaya's house for the seventh time, also installing a portrait of the murdered journalist on the wall.

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, on the evening of January 25, activists installed a fifth temporary plaque on Anna Politkovskaya's house after the memorial plaque was destroyed. It remained in place overnight and in the morning, but by midday on January 26, it had disappeared. Along with it, two cardboard plaques from the "Last Address" project disappeared - one in memory of the repressed chemist Ryabenky, the second - stating that in this house "a memorial plaque for Anna Politkovskaya, who lived here, is being repressed."

On January 18, vandals smashed a memorial plaque bearing Anna Politkovskaya's name on Lesnaya Street in Moscow, near the building where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered. Activists from the Civil Initiative group installed a temporary plaque in its place, 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 plaque was fined 1,000 rubles, though he denied any wrongdoing, claiming that the plaque "fell and broke on its own." By January 22, activists had replaced the broken memorial plaque again, but the temporary plaque had been destroyed for the third time, and a resident of Politkovskaya's building claimed that the temporary plaques had been deliberately destroyed. On the evening of January 23, a third temporary plaque was installed, and its disappearance was discovered on January 24. That same day, activists restored it, installing a fourth temporary plaque, which disappeared that afternoon. Persistent attempts to destroy the plaque only bring Anna Politkovskaya's murder back into the spotlight, her ex-husband emphasized.

Photo: Ekaterina Grakhovskaya / ZPCh Telegram Channel

The new temporary plaque, made of foam board, was installed beneath the former permanent plaque, which was destroyed on January 18. The text on it remains unchanged: "Anna Politkovskaya lived in this building and was vilely murdered on October 7, 2006." A portrait is pinned to the wall above the plaque.

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 her murder have already been released, but the mastermind behind the assassination 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 residents of Chechnya.

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/420269