A Moscow court has given life sentences for two men who killed Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
They were among five men convicted of the crime last month.
Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative reporter and vocal critic of Russia’s war in Chechnya, was shot in a lift in her block of flats.
Three of the men had earlier been acquitted but Russia’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Investigators have not determined who ordered the killing.
Anna Politkovskaya’s reporting for Novaya Gazeta newspaper won international renown for her dogged investigation of Russian abuses in Chechnya
Rustam Makhmudov was given a life sentence for pulling the trigger.
His uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, one of those found guilty of organizing the murder, was also jailed for life.
The three others convicted of the killing – two of whom are Rustam Makhmudov’s brothers – were given between 12 and 20 years in prison.
The prosecution had pushed for tougher sentences.
Anna Politkovskaya’s reporting for Novaya Gazeta newspaper won international renown for her dogged investigation of Russian abuses in Chechnya.
But her pieces, which were highly critical of President Vladimir Putin, then serving his second term, and the Chechen leadership, angered many in authority.
Last year a former police officer, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for supplying the murder weapon.
Anna Politkovskaya’s family say they will continue to campaign until the person who ordered the killing is uncovered.
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William Plotnikov is a new figure that emerged in the story of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s conversion to violent extremist Islam.
Nicknamed “The Canadian”, William Plotnikov was a 23-year-old boxer from Canada who Tamerlan Tsarnaev met online and may have visited during his trip to Russia last year.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US, new reports reveal.
The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev went to Dagestan – a Russia republic torn by jihadist terrorism – to join an Islamic militia and fight against Russian forces in July 2012.
One day after William Plotnikov was killed by Russian security forces, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fled to Moscow. The next day he was back to the United States.
William Plotnikov, a Muslim convert from Toronto, could have spurred Tamerlan Tsarnaev to direct his against the US
Another contact Tamerlan Tsarnaev had in Dagestan – Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19 – was also killed by Russian forces during his six-month visit to the war-torn region.
Novaya Gazeta suggests William Plotnikov may have turned Tamerlan Tsarnaev against the United States.
“It seems that Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to Dagestan with the aim of joining the insurgents. It didn’t work out..,” a security source told the newspaper.
“After Nidal and Plotnikov were destroyed and he lost his contacts, Tsarnaev got frightened and fled.”
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s parents moved them to the US from the troubled Dagestan region years ago.
The similarities between William Plotnikov – who was called “The Canadian” by the other militiamen – and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are uncanny.
Both men were competitive boxers as teenagers. Both seemed to have suddenly turned to radical Islam in 2009 and quickly became interested in violent jihad being waged in Dagestan – where Islamic militias are targeting the moderate Sufi Muslims and fighting Russian security forces who control the region.
Both were born in Russian republics and later moved to the West, where they struggled to fit in.
It is unknown whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev and William Plotnikov ever met in person.
At one point, Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited his aunt in Toronto – the same city where Plotnikov lived with his parents.
William Plotnikov seized and interviewed by Russian authorities in 2010. At that time told them that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was one of the people he communicated with online.
Novaya Gazeta reports that the two communicated via a site associated with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a non-governmental organization.
William Plotnikov was then released by the Russians and went on to join an Islamic militia and take up arms against Russian security forces in Dagestan.
In February 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Dagestan.
Novaya Gazeta reports that he was seen “more than once” by Russian intelligence units with Makhmud Mansur Nidal, 19, a half-Palestinian Dagestani who is believed responsible for a twin bomb attack in the capital Makhachkala that killed 13 people.
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Russian media mogul Alexander Lebedev has been charged with hooliganism in Russia after he punched fellow guest Sergei Polonsky during a TV debate last year.
Alexander Lebedev, who owns Britain’s Independent and Evening Standard newspapers, faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
In September 2011, he knocked former real estate businessman Sergei Polonsky off his chair during the heated debate.
Alexander Lebedev, 52, says the case is a vendetta for his criticism of the Kremlin.
Alexander Lebedev has been charged with hooliganism in Russia after he punched fellow guest Sergei Polonsky during a TV debate last year
He was charged with hooliganism and assault “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred, or hatred of a particular social group” – the same offence that three members of Russia’s Pussy Riot punk group were jailed for earlier this year.
Alexander Lebedev – whose net worth was recently reported by Forbes magazine to be $1.1 billion – has already signed an undertaking not to leave Russia, prosecutors say.
The former KGB agent also holds a major stake in Russia’s opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
The punch-up happened during the show NTVshniki, which was broadcast on 16 September 2011.
Alexander Lebedev said after the incident that Sergei Polonsky was about to hit him so he had acted in self-defence.
He told Russia’s Interfax news agency: “At one point, expounding on an idea of his and looking straight at me, he said: <<This deserves a punch in the face>>.
“I asked <<Do you mean me?>>, and he shouted <<Yes!>> After that, I very neatly neutralized this absolutely unfounded threat.”
Sergei Polonsky claimed after the show that he had a cut on his arm and his trousers were torn.
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