Sergey Khadzhikurbanov who was convicted for the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Russian opposition journalist, received a pardon after participating in the "special military operation" and signed a contract with the Russian defense ministry.

Khadzhikurbanov, former detective of the Organized Crime Control Department, participated in the "special military operation" in Ukraine and was pardoned, his lawyer Aleksey Mikhalchik reported:

"On the first contract Khadzhikurbanov participated in the SMO as a convict, then he was pardoned and now he participates in the SMO like a civilian military man, having signed a contract with the defense ministry. He worked in special forces in the 90s, he has experience, which is probably why he was immediately offered a command position," the lawyer said.

Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on October 7th, 2006, in Moscow. She was a Russian journalist, military journalist and a documentalist of Ukrainian origin who had oppositional views. Her murder is regarded as a sponsored one, directed against freedom of speech.

Apart from journalism, Anna was involved into legal activities - she helped mothers of dead Russian soldiers with their court cases, conducted investigations on corruption in Russian defense ministry and command of the Federal Troops Group in Chechnya. Politkovskaya criticized Russian authorities and Putin harshly. Putin considered her his personal enemy.

In her book "Putin's Russia", Anna wrote: "Why do I dislike Putin so much? Exactly for that. For his mouldiness that is worse than a crime, for his cynicism, racism, for his lies, for the gas he used during the siege of 'Nord-Ost', for beating up children that lasted during his whole first presidential term.
(By "beating up children" she meant their deaths during combat in Chechnya).

In October 2002, Politkovskaya took part in negotiations with terrorists that seized the Nord-Ost musical in Moscow, and brought water to the hostages. In the spring of 2004, when schoolchildren in Beslan were taken hostage, there was an attempt to poison her when she was on the plane headed for Beslan.

Now the people who organized the murder of Anna Politkovskaya are heroes of Russia. They continue to kill, this time Ukrainians.

The instigator of the murder is still unknown. But we can imagine where the trace will lead.