ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA

Islamic fundamentalist terrorists demanding an independent Islamic state in the middle of Russia had terrorized the people of the capital extorting money, beheading people and stealing property to fund their activities. The Russian military came in to attack the terrorists but with such a heavy hand that they did not distinguish very well between the terrorists and the regular civilian population, even torturing inhabitants suspected of aiding the terrorists when the suspects themselves had been tortured and threatened by the terrorists and they had seen many who did not cooperate killed. The people—and especially the women—were caught in the middle.

This courageous woman wrote many articles exposing some of the excesses of the Russians in coping with the Chechen conflict and the Chechen terrorists. She was also very critical of the Putin administration. She had just published an article exposing torture used by the Russians in dealing with terrorists. She was gunned down outside her apartment in Moscow. Politkovskaya was actually born in America and was an American Citizen as well as a Russian Citizen.

Islamic fundamentalist terrorists demanding an independent Islamic state in the middle of Russia had terrorized the people of the capital extorting money, beheading people and stealing property to fund their activities. The Russian military came in to attack the terrorists but with such a heavy hand that they did not distinguish very well between the terrorists and the regular civilian population, even torturing inhabitants suspected of aiding the terrorists when the suspects themselves had been tortured and threatened by the terrorists and they had seen many who did not cooperate killed. The people—and especially the women—were caught in the middle.

This courageous woman wrote many articles exposing some of the excesses of the Russians in coping with the Chechen conflict and the Chechen terrorists. She was also very critical of the Putin administration. She had just published an article exposing torture used by the Russians in dealing with terrorists. She was gunned down outside her apartment in Moscow. Politkovskaya was actually born in America and was an American Citizen as well as a Russian Citizen.