Fact check
Is it true: Anna Politkovskaya assassination (Oct 7 2006, Moscow)?
Partly — it's more complicated than the claim suggests.
A contract murder tied to her journalism is court-established: five convicted in 2014 (Rustam Makhmudov and Lom-Ali Gaitukayev life; Dzhabrail Makhmudov 14yr; Ibragim Makhmudov 12yr; Sergey Khadzhikurbanov 20yr) and Moscow police Lt-Col Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov sentenced to 11yr on 14 December 2012 under a plea deal. The mastermind was never officially identified; the ECHR (2018) found Russia failed to investigate who commissioned the killing, including alleged FSB or Chechen-administration involvement, without ruling on those allegations. State or Kremlin commissioning is unproven, and Novaya Gazeta reported that the 15-year period ran out on 7 October 2021 unless a court extends it.
The claim
Anna Politkovskaya's murder on 7 October 2006 was a planned contract killing carried out because of her journalism, and it was commissioned or backed by Russian state or security-service figures.
Key evidence
Five convicted of murder at 2014 trial
Russian Government: perpetrators acted for money, not on a state agenda; suspected instigator was a UK-based former politician
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