Murdered journalist Politkovskaya a tireless investigator

Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist whose death Alexander Litvinenko was investigating when he was apparently poisoned, was a tireless investigative reporter.

A prominent critic of the war in Chechnya, she chronicled abuses against civilians there in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Her body was found in a lift in her apartment building in Moscow last month with two gunshot wounds, one to the head.

She was about to publish a story about alleged torture and abductions in the region.

Her reporting of the killings and beatings of civilians by Russian servicemen put her on a collision course with the authorities.

She wrote a book critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his campaign in Chechnya, documenting widespread abuse of civilians by government troops.

Colleagues said she had frequently received threats, and that a few months ago, unknown assailants had tried unsuccessfully to break into the car her daughter Vera was driving.

In 2001, she fled to the Austrian capital, Vienna, for several months after receiving email threats alleging that a Russian police officer she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians was intent on revenge.

Police officer Sergei Lapin was detained in 2002 based on her allegations but the case against him was closed the following year.

She began reporting on Chechnya in 1999 during Russia’s second military campaign there, concentrating less on military engagements than on the human side of the war.

She wrote about the Chechen inhabitants of refugee camps and wounded Russian soldiers until she was banned from visiting the hospitals.

In 2004, she fell seriously ill with symptoms of food poisoning after drinking tea on a flight from Moscow to southern Russia during the school hostage crisis in Beslan, where many thought she was heading to mediate in the crisis. Her colleagues suspected the incident was an attempt on her life.