St. Petersburg city authorities have refused to authorize a commemorative event to murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya for the first time since she was killed 11 years ago, its organizers said Wednesday.
Politkovskaya was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006. She was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin who built her reputation reporting the conflict in Chechnya for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
Authorities rejected the memorial event dedicated to Politkovskaya because of a previously scheduled event, a city official told Novaya Gazeta on Tuesday.
The refusal marks the first time in 11 years that St. Petersburg has not allowed the event, an organizer Iosif Skakovsky told the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Wednesday.
The local deputy who told Novaya Gazeta about the Petrograd municipality’s rejection said the memorial event will still go ahead near a monument to victims of political repressions called the Solovetsky Stone.