Marking the anniversary, the BBC published for the first time in Russian an interview with Politkovskaya recorded several months before her death. The conversation aired in English in November 2006 on the BBC Two channel.

Meduza reprinted excerpts from a book by Lana Estemirova, "Please, Live." Her mother, the human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, was a close friend and colleague of the journalist.

The human rights defender Alexander Cherkasov described their collaboration this way: Estemirova was a Virgil for Politkovskaya, a guide through all the circles of hell. It was she who introduced the journalist to the subjects of her future reports from Chechnya and helped her get to places where other Moscow journalists had no access.

The two traveled together to Ramzan Kadyrov's residence to interview him. After that material was published, the younger Kadyrov openly threatened them and called Politkovskaya his enemy.

Politkovskaya had written about the Russian-Chechen war since 1999. She reported on overcrowded refugee camps, secret federal prisons, and the bombing of civilians. As Estemirova writes, the journalist wanted to convey a simple idea to politicians and ordinary Russians: to do at least something, to help one's compatriots, not to ignore the suffering of others, because one day anyone could find themselves in their place.

According to Deutsche Welle, there were shamefully few official criminal investigations into human rights violations in Chechnya. This meant that torture and killing could be carried out with virtually no consequences. Politkovskaya and Estemirova sought not revenge but justice, and sometimes their efforts bore fruit: several Russian officers received prison terms for war crimes in Chechnya.

Six people have been convicted in the murder case. The journalist's colleagues are convinced that the person who actually ordered the killing was never found. Vladimir Putin's comment that by her death Politkovskaya did Russia more harm than by her work never promised a full investigation, Deutsche Welle writes.