Sergei Khadjikurbanov, convicted of participating in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaia, in 2006, was supposed to be in prison beyond the year 2030. But fighting in Ukraine has earned him the pardon of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, Tuesday, it transpired that the hitman had been released a few weeks ago.
The information was confirmed by his lawyer, Aleksei Mikhalchik, who pointed out that he has also signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense to remain linked to the armed forces of Russia, according to which he will continue to participate in the “special military operation”. name given officially in Russia to the conflict that started after Putin ordered the army to enter the neighboring country in February 2022.
Tens of thousands of Russian prisoners have signed similar contracts with the army or mercenary formations, such as the well-known Wagner Group. “Convicted people, including those with serious crimes, atone for their crimes with blood on the battlefield,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
Khadjikurbanov, a former police officer specializing in the fight against organized crime, joined the war zone in late 2022, Baza, a Telegram news channel, reported.
Because of his experience, he began his service as a commander of the Intelligence Department and later rose to become a battalion commander.
After six months of service, he decided to extend his contract with Defense and was exempted from serving the sentence, this media reported. According to his lawyer, he is still serving on the Ukrainian front as a volunteer soldier today.
Khadjikurbanov was arrested in 2007 accused of participating in the organization of Politkovskaya’s murder. Two years later a jury found him innocent. But it ended up being ordered to repeat the trial. He was found guilty of extortion and again accused of participating in the attack on the reporter of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, now banned in Russia. A court found him guilty in 2014, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
Politkovskaya was 48 years old in 2006. On October 7, the last day of her life, she was returning to her home in an apartment building in the center of Moscow, after making several purchases. A gunman shot him in the lobby, near the elevator. It was also President Putin’s birthday.
The journalist had gained international fame for her reporting and investigative articles, in which she criticized official corruption and human rights abuses, especially in Chechnya.
In June 2014, a Moscow court ruled against the hitman and against those who had helped him, including Khadjikurbanov.
The judge ordered life in prison for Chechen gunman Rustam Makhmudov, who was found guilty of pulling the trigger, and for his uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who handled all the logistics for a typically brutal contract killing . The latter died in prison in 2017.
Makhmúdov’s brothers, Ibraguim and Djabraïl, the judge sentenced them to 12 and 14 years in prison. According to the indictment, his mission in this plot was to follow and monitor the movements of the journalist, as well as to warn her brother the moment she arrived home.
Despite these sentences, today it is still not known who ordered and paid for the ruthless crime, a common complaint in Russia of families and human rights associations in this type of murder. Many opponents of the Kremlin pointed to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, as a suspect and have complained that the investigation has not focused on him. Kadyrov, who has ruled this Russian region since 2007 with the support of the Kremlin, has always denied this.
