Rights groups and Politkovskaya's colleagues at the independent-minded newspaper Novaya Gazeta have criticised the slow pace of the investigation and expressed doubt it would ever reveal who was ultimately behind her killing.
Pointing to Politkovskaya's explosive articles, investigators made a rare reference to a possible motive and the person who had ordered the killing - an "unidentified person upset with publications exposing human rights violations, the stealing of state property and the overstepping of authority by officials".
According to the investigators, that person hired a Chechen native, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, to arrange Politkovskaya's murder by creating a six-man team that staked out her apartment and followed her back from the grocery store on the day of the murder. Pavlyuchenkov was a member of that team, the investigators said.
"Each member of the group has now been presented with charges in regard to the murdering of Politkovskaya, depending on their role in the crime," the committee also said, adding Pavlyuchenkov's case would be considered separately because of his agreement to collaborate with police.
The case is one of at least a dozen Russian journalists whose politically charged murders have gone unsolved.
SOURCE: Reuters
