Anna Politkovskaja

was special correspondent in Chechnya of Novaya gazeta. She began reporting on Chechnya in 1999 during Russia’s second military campaign there, concentrating on the human side of the war. She acted as a mediator in the Nord-Ost theatre siege in Moscow in 2002.

She received numerous international honours, including: the “Artem Borovik” Award in 2001; the Most Courageous Defence of Free Expression from Index on Censorship in 2002; the Award for Courage in Journalism from the International Women’s Media Foundation in 2002; the OSCE Award for Journalism and Democracy in 2003; the First Prize of the Lettre Ulysses Award in 2003; and the Olof Palme Prize in 2004. Publications in English include: A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya, and Putin’s Russia (2004)

Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead on Saturday, 7 October 2006, in the elevator of her apartment block in Moscow.