22:28, 14 December 2006

Anna Politkovskaya awarded Diploma of Sakharov's Prize

Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta," was posthumously awarded a special Diploma of the Jury of Andrei Sakharov's Prize "For the Life Sacrificed to Journalism." "It is also worth noting that Politkovskaya was earlier laureate of Sakharov's Prize itself," Boris Timoshenko, secretary of the Prize Jury, has reported today.

In 2006, Anna Lebedeva, journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta," who works in Rostov-on-Don, has also become a Laureate of the Prize.

Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead on October 7 in Moscow, was known, first of all, for her materials on Chechnya and North Caucasus. The last interview in her life that she gave almost an hour before the murder to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" was also on Chechen topic, namely, on career prospects of Chechnya Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov and extortion of money from residents of the Republic, practiced under his guidance.