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Anna Politkovskaya

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The Resume

    (August 30, 1958-October 7, 2006)
    Born in New York City, New York
    Birth name was Anna Mazepa
    Journalist and human rights activist
    Wrote 'A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya,' 'A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya' and 'Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy'
    Shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building

Why she might be annoying:

    Her marriage broke up over the pressure of her career.
    Some critics said she was more of an advocate than a journalist.
    In 'Putin's Russia,' she wrote, 'It is we who are responsible for Putin's policies.... Society has shown limitless apathy.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She refused offers of asylum in Western Europe, saying she could not abandon the Russian people.
    She said of the constant death threats, 'You don't get used to this, but you learn to live with it.'
    After being detained by Russian troops in Chechnya, she was beaten, threatened with rape and subjected to a mock execution (2001).
    Hostage takers during the Nord-Ost Theatre siege in Moscow (2002) and the Beslan school siege (2004) demanded that she be part of the negotiating team.
    She may have been poisoned while on her way to Beslan.
    She was killed on Vladimir Putin's birthday, fueling suspicions her death was a 'gift' for the Russian leader.
    The head of the journalists' union in Russia said, 'If all journalists had been as courageous as Anna Politkovskaya, she wouldn't have been killed because those who killed her would have hesitated at the thought that another journalist would take her place.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 154 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 16 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 33 Votes: 57.58% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 110 Votes: 52.73% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 65 Votes: 78.46% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 21 Votes: 47.62% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 26 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 22 Votes: 27.27% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 26 Votes: 34.62% Annoying