Moscow: Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of the war in rebel Chechnya, was found shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, news agencies reported.
Politkovskaya, a mother of two, was well-known for exposing rights abuses by Russian troops and remained critical of Moscow's campaign despite intense government pressure.
Her war reporting often meant she was under scrutiny by Russian politicians and, sometimes, the security services. She had been arrested and complained of sometimes being threatened.
Interfax news agency quoted police sources as saying her body was discovered in a lift by a neighbour at 1710 hrs. Police officers found a pistol and four rounds abandoned in the lift, it reported.
Politkovskaya, who worked for Novaya Gazeta -- a newspaper known for its opposition to the Kremlin -- acted as a negotiator with Chechen rebels who laid siege to a Moscow theatre in 2002.
She was unable to report on the Beslan school siege two years later, when Chechen rebels took hundreds of children hostage. She instead was taken to hospital with food poisoning after drinking a cup of tea on the plane.
Contract killings were not unusual in Moscow where gang violence reigned after the fall of communism in 1991. Reporters have also been targets.
US journalist Paul Klebnikov was murdered in 2004 in Moscow. The editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine was shot four times as he left his office in central Moscow on July 9 of that year. His killers have not been found.
A source close to the case told Reuters the investigation was focusing on a possible link between Klebnikov's murder and is interest in the possible misappropriation of Russian funds intended for the reconstruction of Chechnya.
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