Russian neo-Nazis claim responsibility for vandalizing memorial to slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya

The Russian neo-Nazi group National Socialism/White Power (NS/WP) has claimed responsibility for the destruction of a memorial plaque honoring Anna Politkovskaya, the Novaya Gazeta journalist who was assassinated in 2006, Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on Monday.

Politkovskaya was murdered in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Six people were later convicted in connection with the killing and received sentences ranging from 11 years in prison to life, but those who ordered the murder were never identified. The statute of limitations expired on October 7, 2021.

The NS/WP abbreviation was widely used in Russia in the early 2000s by various unconnected neo-Nazi groups involved in racially motivated attacks and killings. In 2021, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the NS/WP movement a terrorist organization and banned it nationwide.

In a post published in a closed NS/WP Telegram channel on January 18, the group said that “certain enterprising individuals” had destroyed the plaque on the apartment building where Politkovskaya was killed. The post described the act as a “tribute” from NS/WP to its “glorious predecessors” from the neo-Nazi group BORN (the Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists).

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The channel also shared photos of posters plastered on a building near where human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova were murdered in 2009. The posters showed defaced photographs of Markelov and Baburova alongside the words, “Fuck you, dead pigs. We are BORN.” According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, the posters appeared on the eve of the 17th anniversary of the killings.

Markelov and Baburova were shot dead in central Moscow on January 19, 2009. In 2011, a Russian court convicted Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgeniya Khassis, members of the neo-Nazi group BORN, of carrying out the killings. Tikhonov was sentenced to life in prison. Khassis received an 18-year sentence, which was later reduced, and was released in November 2025 after serving 16 years in prison. The organizer of the murders, Ilya Goryachev, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for ordering five killings, forming an extremist group, and illegal weapons possession.

Politkovskaya’s memorial plaque was smashed on January 18. Members of Civic Initiative later installed a temporary replacement, but it was destroyed too, according to Sota. Editors at Novaya Gazeta said the newsroom and Politkovskaya’s children plan to request a criminal investigation into the vandalism.