“Furious impotence”. Seven plaques destroyed at the site of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder

The standoff between volunteers and those intent on destroying the memorial to the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow has entered its second week. On January 27, a seventh temporary plaque was torn down, following the destruction of the original stone memorial on January 18. According to Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Politkovskaya worked for, neo-Nazis were responsible for the initial attack. While a court has since fined a local man, Alexander Filippov, for “petty hooliganism,” an senior woman living in the same building on Lesnaya street has admitted to tearing down at least two of the replacement signs. Here‘s what we know about the ongoing battle to preserve Anna Politkovskaya’s memory.

The memorial on Lesnaya street, where the journalist was assassinated in the fall of 2006, was first vandalised on the evening of January 18. According to Novaya, a neo-Nazi group calling themselves NS/WP, claimed responsibility for the destruction in a private Telegram channel.

Novaya Gazeta reported that the group timed the attack to coincide with the anniversary of the murders of two other colleagues in 2009: the journalist Anastasia Baburova and the human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov. They framed the act as a “tribute” to their predecessors in BORN, or “Combat Organisation of Russian Nationalists”, a group responsible for the 2009 killings. That same evening, posters reading “Suck it, dead pigs. We are BORN” appeared near the site where Markelov and Baburova were killed on Prechistenka street.

The shattered original plaque was quickly replaced by activists with a temporary version made of paper and foam board. However, by the afternoon of January 19, this too was destroyed along with a makeshift shrine of flowers. Since then, volunteers have been installing new plaques almost daily, only for them to be ripped down almost immediately.

Anna Politkovskaya, who investigated crimes by Russian security forces and the Chechen authorities, was shot dead on October 7, 2006, in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. While several people were convicted for the murder, the person who ordered the hit has never been identified. Novaya Gazeta attributes this failure to a lack of political will. In 2023, it emerged that Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer convicted in the case, had been released from prison to fight in the war in Ukraine. Politkovskaya’s children described his pardon as a desecration of their mother’s memory.

Alexander Filippov, an unemployed former employee of the state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti, was fined 1,000 rubles (about $13 at the current rate) for the initial act of vandalism. In court, Filippov denied the charges, claiming the plaque “just fell” as he was clearing away withered flowers. Asked why he was tending flowers outside a building with which he had no connection, he explained he “had a religious upbringing and was born in Moscow.”

Nadezhda Prusenkova, press secretary for Novaya Gazeta, told Mediazona that while it is difficult to confirm Filippov’s membership in NS/WP, his digital footprint suggests he might share their far-right ideology. However, the newspaper “can’t make definitive claims on the matter.”

Novaya Gazeta called for a criminal investigation into the plaque destruction.

The subsequent removal of temporary plaques appears to involve different people. One 69-year-old resident of the building, described by the news outlet Agentstvo as a vocal supporter of the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, admitted to removing at least two of the plaques. On social media, she had previously praised Kadyrov as the “pride of Russia”.

Volunteers from the “Civic Initiative” group continue to replace the plaques at a cost of roughly 1,000 rubles each. They have faced opposition from the chair of the building’s house council, who accused them of “vandalism” and threatened to call the police.

The group now plans to petition Moscow authorities to grant the Lesnaya street site official memorial status. While an official plaque exists at the Novaya Gazeta editorial offices, the memorial at her home has remained “unofficial” since it was installed by activists in 2007.

Alexander Politkovsky, the journalist’s widower, described the campaign against the memorial as an act of “furious impotence”. Speaking to the business daily RBC, he noted that the vandals’ efforts were counterproductive: “If the existence of this plaque bothered few people for years, its persistent destruction now forces the fact of her murder back into the public eye”.

Editor: Maria Klimova