Neo-Nazi group admits it destroyed Moscow memorial to Anna Politkovskaya

Russian Neo-Nazis have admitted in a private Telegram channel that they were responsible for the destruction of a memorial plaque dedicated to the murdered Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya in central Moscow on Sunday.

In a post published in the early hour of Monday, neo-Nazi group National Socialism / White Power (NS/WP), which has been deemed a terrorist organisation in Russia, published a post claiming that “certain proactive individuals” had destroyed the plaque marking the spot where Politkovskaya was killed.

Calling the act “a tribute from the Four Letters [NS/WP] to their glorious predecessors from another four-letter organisation”, a reference to the now disbanded Russian neo-Nazi group BORN, which was responsible for the 2009 killings of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Former Moscow municipal deputy Alexander Zamyatin first reported the damage to the plaque honouring Politkovskaya on Sunday, when he shared photos of the damage on his personal Telegram channel. The editorial staff of Novaya Gazeta and Politkovskaya’s children have demanded that a criminal case be opened.

Politkovskaya, who gained international renown for her exposés of Kremlin corruption and the brutal treatment of civilians in Chechnya at the hands of Russian forces during the Second Chechen War, was assassinated in the stairwell of her own apartment building on Moscow’s Lesnaya Street on 7 October 2006. Those who ordered the crime have never been found.

The European Court of Human Rightsruled in 2018 that the Russian government had failed to carry out an effective investigation into Politkovskaya’s murder. The statute of limitations on the case expired on 7 October 2021.