Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya was born in 1958. After studying at the Moscow State University, she received a diploma in journalism. Anna Politkovskaya has worked for various newspapers and collaborated with TV and radio stations.While working for Obshchaya Gazeta, she visited Chechnya for the first time in 1998 to conduct an interview with President Maskhadov. Already working for the Novaya Gazeta, the independent democratic newspaper, she concentrated on the second Chechnyan war and has visited Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia over fifty times.
Her works include Russia Under Putin and A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001), a compilation of dispatches written between 1999 and 2000. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya was published in 2003.
In February 2001 Anna Politkovskaya was arrested while in southern Chechnya. She was formally accused of violating the strict laws controlling media coverage of the conflict and was ordered out of the enclave. In October 2001, after receiving death threats related to her reporting in Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya relocated to Vienna for a time. Supported by the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences, she was able to write her new book. During the hostage drama at the Nordost Theatre in 2002, Anna Politkovskaya agreed to the hostagetakers’ request to assist during negotiations.
Anna Politkovskaya was decorated with the Participant in Battles Medal for her work in the field. In addition to other awards, Anna Politkovskaya received the 2000 Golden Pen Award from the Russian Union of Journalists, the Freedom of Expression Award of the Index on Censorship, the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, and the OSCE Prize for Journalism and Democracy.
Anna Politkovskaya is currently writing her fourth non-fiction book entitled Putin’s Russia. She writes for the Muscovite Novaya Gazeta and holds lectures in Great Britain, France, Holland, Germany and other Western European countries.
Anna Politkovskaya lives with her family in Moscow.
