01:45, 17 February 2026

The memorial plaque on Politkovskaya's house has been restored for the 16th time.

A new temporary plaque on Politkovskaya's house. Photo: "Slovo zashchity" / Telegram

For the 16th time in a row, activists have installed a homemade memorial plaque in memory of journalist Anna Politkovskaya on the facade of her Moscow home. The previous plaque hung in place for 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. Civil Initiative activists installed a temporary plaque to replace the destroyed one, but it was also destroyed on January 19. On the afternoon of February 15, activists installed the 15th temporary plaque on the murdered journalist's home.

One of the plaques, installed by Yabloko activists, hung for a week and a half, but was also destroyed on February 6. Activists then painted the original text from the broken plaque onto the building's facade ("Anna Politkovskaya lived in this house and was vilely murdered on October 7, 2006"). 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."

Moscow activists restored the memorial plaque on Anna Politkovskaya's house on the evening of February 16. The previous temporary plaque was torn down earlier that day. "The battle for the plaque has been going on for over a month," reported the "Word of Defense" project.

The new plaque echoes the original plaque's text; it is located on the facade beneath a stenciled inscription with the same words, slightly below the spot where the plaque had hung for years.

This is the 16th time the plaque has been installed on Anna Politkovskaya's house, SOTAvision* reports.

“The sign was torn down once again, and we put it up once again. While vandals quietly tear it down, we will put it up openly, without fear. We will not let the memory of Anna Politkovskaya be forgotten,” the activist declared in the video.

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 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 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.

"Caucasian Knot" publishes materials dedicated to Politkovskaya on the thematic page "Politkovskaya and Estemirova," which also contains materials about her friend To Anna, journalist and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on the problems of residents of Chechnya. We have updated the apps on Android and Android. href="https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%BB/id1154933161">IOS! We would be grateful for criticism and ideas for development both in Google Play/App Store and on KU pages in social networks. Without installing a VPN, you can read us on Telegram (in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia - with VPN). Using a VPN, you can continue reading "Caucasian Knot" on the website as usual, and on social networks: Facebook**, Instagram**, "VKontakte", "Odnoklassniki" and X. You can watch the "Caucasian Knot" video on YouTube. Send messages to +49 157 72317856 on WhatsApp**, to the same number on Telegram, or write to @Caucasian_Knot.

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/420868