Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, writer, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Second Chechen War and President of Russia Vladimir Putin. Politkovskaya made her reputation reporting from Chechnya. Her post-1999 articles about conditions in Chechnya were turned into several books; Russian readers' main access to her investigations and publications was through Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper known for its often-critical investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. From 2000 onwards, she received numerous international awards for her work. In 2004, she published a personal account, Putin's Russia. On 7 October 2006 she was murdered in the lift of her block of flats, an assassination that attracted international attention. In June 2014 five men were sentenced to prison for the murder, but it is still unclear who ordered or paid for the contract killing. 

August 30th, 1958 in New York City as Анна Степановна Мазепа  /  Died:   Oct 7th, 2006