Russians fear truth targeted in journalist's murder

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) Russians and Chechens today mourned journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin Anna Politkovskaya, saying her murder was a political killing to stifle the free press.

The United States said it was ''shocked and profoundly saddened'' by the murder of the 48-year-old mother of two, who won numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government.

But there was still no word from the Kremlin, whose campaign against separatist rebels in the violent southern province of Chechnya had often been the target of Politkovskaya's investigative reporting.

She was shot dead yesterday at her apartment block in central Moscow in a killing prosecutors linked to her work. A surveillance camera showed the suspect -- a tall man in black wearing a baseball cap -- quickly leaving the scene.

In the days before her death, Politkovskaya had been working on a story about torture in Chechnya, which had been due to run on Monday, along with photographs, her newspaper Novaya Gazeta said. It said her death had disrupted the publication.

Independent radio Ekho Moskvy quoted Chechnya's pro-Moscow Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov as saying: ''Her stories weren't always objective. But that was her personal point of view.'' Politkovskaya had previously accused his semi-private guard of being linked to kidnappings and torture, a charge he denied.

In Chechnya's capital Grozny, many remembered Politkovskaya, saying the region had lost a truthful friend.

''It is through her that the world learnt about all the lawlessness done here,'' said Mustafa Kurkiyev, an independent journalist.

''She died because she displeased someone,'' Aindi Sagaipov, a local administration worker in Aurgun outside Grozny, said. ''For someone, she must have been a pain in the neck.'' MOURNING In Moscow, hundreds of Muscovites thronged Pushkin Square, lit candles and laid flowers at portraits of Politkovskaya.

''This is a political killing, there is no doubt about it, and the authorities are mixed up in this,'' Valery Borshchev, a member of Russia's liberal Yabloko party, told reporters.

''The Kremlin has killed freedom of speech,'' said a poster fixed to a lamppost in the square. ''You are responsible for everything'', read a poster featuring Putin's portrait.

In Russia's second city St Petersburg, hundreds braved torrential rain to pay tribute.

''She was killed by a regime which made political terror part of everyday life. State power is trying to intimidate society,'' Yuli Rybakov, head of the local branch of Memorial human rights watchdog, told the rally.

Washington and the European Union urged Russia's government to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation ''to bring to justice all those responsible for this heinous murder''.

The US State Department said the intimidation and murder of journalists -- 12 in Russia in the past six years, including American citizen Paul Klebnikov on July 9, 2004 -- was ''an affront to free and independent media and to democratic values''.

Putin had often been the target of Politkovskaya's criticism. She accused him of stifling freedom and failing to shake off his past as a KGB agent.

There are few independent voices in the Russian media, most of it controlled by the state of business interests. Newspapers such as Novaya Gazeta, popular with Russian liberals and human rights activists, are rare, especially outside big cities.

Businessman Alexander Lebedev, who owns a large minority stake in the paper, offered to pay a reward of 25 million roubles (3,500) for information about those who ordered and carried out litkovskaya's assassination.

REUTERS DKB BST2048