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In recent times every day has seen the feeling of shame grow in me for Russia and for all of us, its citizens. I am ashamed to live in a country where those in power have no conscience or intelligence. This is mainly because I believe that any people gets the government it deserves.

On the other hand, hope grows in me when I remember that there are still some in Russia like Anna Politkovskaya. Such stars shine apparently unpredictably, perhaps once in a lifetime, but in the surrounding darkness you are dazzled by the unexpected light they radiate. I know for a fact that, having once encountered such a star and having understood her significance, it is impossible to carry on living as you did before. The encounter makes the darkness only too depressingly obvious, and the light from such a star is imprinted in the memory and provides eternal guidance. It can even provoke a feeling of envy.

Lyuba, Nord-Ost

Anna was umbilically attached to the Nord-Ost tragedy. These last four years she has been the mouthpiece of Nord-Ost, supporting those of us who had lost our friends and relatives in that gas chamber. She helped us to prevail in the unequal battle with a lying government. She was not allowed to attend the court hearings into Nord-Ost; the investigators and judges of the Basmanny court were afraid of her. They were afraid of her truth and irreconcilability. How fearsome the truth about crimes must be and how dangerous for those complicit in them if, in order to silence it, they have to resort to the gun. “What are we going to let them get away with tomorrow?” Anna would say when we assembled on the anniversaries of the tragedy. Alas, we are again too late. We have allowed them to kill Anna, perhaps the most loyal friend of those she tried to save, persuading terrorists to let children and adults drink, whom the Government had condemned to a monstrous death. She will not be there at the anniversary on October 26. We have been orphaned.

Memorial Human Rights Centre

It is almost impossible to believe. We all feel that we have lost someone close to us. Anna Politkovskaya was a much greater champion of human rights than many of those who apply that description to themselves. She took to heart the problems of those who work in Chechnya as closely and passionately as her own. Now we can reveal that in the Caucasus Anna Politkovskaya worked constantly with members of Memorial, travelled together with them throughout the Republic, stayed in their homes. She constantly used materials from Memorial, sometimes referencing them, sometimes not, in order not to set anybody up. She herself appeared to live a charmed life, but it was a principle to publish everything, irrespective of the possible consequences. Only bullets could stop her. Will those bullets stop her cause? That now depends on the living.

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

It is essential to find the culprits if there is to be any possibility of living in democratic conditions.

Niotkuda

A completely weird sense of emptiness, of loss, and powerlessness. It is dreadful to live in a country where crudity and barbarism reign. It is dreadful that nothing can be changed. I am 20. I am studying to be a journalist. I often read Politkovskaya’s articles. Actually, she was the reason I bought Novaya gazeta. I do not know what kind of journalist I will turn out to be, but I will most certainly follow Anna’s example. Revered be her memory!

Ursula Plassnik, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria

This vile and shameful crime. There have been too many unsolved murders of journalists in Russia. If Russia wants to be a democratic law-governed state it cannot intimidate independent journalists or silence them. Without freedom of the press and criticism from their direction, the democratic system of values cannot exist.

Polina, England

Lord, how full of sadness I am! How dreadful! I am studying to be a journalist in England. I read Anna’s book, Putin’s Russia. What a shame that it is