The plaque on Politkovskaya's house was destroyed less than a day after it was restored.

Unknown individuals destroyed a temporary plaque installed last night on the railing of the building where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was murdered.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on January 18, a memorial plaque, which had hung for nearly 20 years on the wall of the building on Lesnaya Street in Moscow where Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya lived and was shot, was destroyed for the first time. Most of the temporary plaques installed by activists after that lasted less than 24 hours. By February 26, 24 plaques had been destroyed, including 23 temporary ones. By the morning of February 28, the 25th temporary plaque had been installed.

A temporary plaque in memory of Anna Politkovskaya has been destroyed again. Vandals have damaged the memorial plaque to murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya on Lesnaya Street in Moscow once again, but this time they only managed to remove the text, while the base remains attached to the railing near the entrance, SotaVision* reported today.

The publication is illustrated with a photograph showing that the metal base remains attached to the railing.

03:34 17.02.2026

Attacks on Politkovskaya's memory have defined the limits of civic expression

Any civic expression, whether a plaque in memory of Anna Politkovskaya or a "Last Address" sign for a victim of Stalin's repressions, provokes active aggression among supporters of the government in Russia. Impunity encourages spontaneous acts of vandalism, even without direct orders from above.

As a reminder, 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 organized the murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rustam Makhmudov has been identified as the direct perpetrator, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya".

Anna Politkovskaya gave her last interview 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 Anna's friend, the journalist and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was killed in 2009 and also worked on issues affecting Chechen residents.

* are listed as foreign agents.

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