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After the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskya on 7 October 2006, hundreds of people gathered in Moscow to light candles and lay flowers in mourning. Protestors claim she was killed because of her outspoken accounts of life in modern Russia, in particular her reporting of the Chechen wars. Politkovskya was the thirteenth journalist to be killed in a contract style shooting after Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.

Her book, Putin’s Russia, was published in 2004 and it paints a grim picture of public and private life under his rule. During her book’s launch she talked to Jenni Murray about daring to criticise Vladimir Putin, her role as terrorist negotiator during the Moscow Theatre hostage crisis and how she believed she was drugged when trying to do a similar role in the Beslan school hostage crisis.