Man who shot Anna Politkovskaya pardoned for taking part in special operation in Ukraine

Former operative Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who had been convicted of killing journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was pardoned, his lawyer Alexey Mikhalchik told TASS.

According to him, the convict was pardoned for participating in the special military operation in Ukraine. Khadzhikurbanov had already served there under his first contract and then signed a new one. Khadzhikurbanov heads a combat unit, the lawyer added.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov went to the zone of the special military operation in late 2022. At first he served as commander of an intelligence unit and was soon promoted to battalion commander.

Former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was detained in 2007 on charges of assassination of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. In 2009, a jury found him not guilty. Nevertheless, in 2014, the court sentenced Khadzhikurbanov to 20 years in prison.

Politkovskaya was shot several times in the entrance of her apartment building on Lesnaya Street in Moscow on October 7, 2006.

The mastermind of the crime has never been found. Investigators believe that Politkovskaya's assassination was arranged by Lom-Ali Gaitukaev. In 2014, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 2017.

In addition to Gaitukaev, his nephews Dzhabrail, Ibragim and Rustam Makhmudov, ex-employee of the Organised Crime Control Department Khadzhikurbanov and former employee of the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, police lieutenant colonel Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, were found guilty of organising and executing the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced in 2014 to 20 years in prison (although earlier, in 2009, a jury found him not guilty).

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2019 that he had done everything to solve the murder of Politkovskaya, but the person who ordered the crime is still unknown to the investigation.