US "shocked", Kremlin silent as journalist killed

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) The United States said it was ''shocked and profoundly saddened'' by the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin.

There was still no word from the Kremlin on the killing of Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two who won worldwide fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya.

She was shot dead yesterday at her apartment block in central Moscow in a killing prosecutors said was linked to her work.

Paying tribute to the indomitable journalist, the US State Department said Politkovskaya was ''personally courageous and committed to seeking justice even in the face of previous death threats''.

''The United States urges the Russian government to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation in order to find, prosecute, and bring to justice all those responsible for this heinous murder,'' it said in a statement on its Web site www.state.gov.

''The intimidation and murder of journalists -- 12 in Russia in the past six years, including American citizen Paul Klebnikov on July 9, 2004 -- is an affront to free and independent media and to democratic values.'' Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, a shareholder in Politkovskaya's newspaper Novaya Gazeta, has called the killing a ''savage crime and a blow to the entire democratic, independent press''.

But there has been no reaction from Russian authorities.

Putin, whose 54th birthday coincided with Politkovskaya's murder, had often been the target of her stinging criticism. She accused him of stifling freedom and failing to shake off his past as a KGB agent.

Russian news agencies quoted mostly unnamed prosecutors and investigators as saying Politkovskaya's political views and her ''professional activity'' were the main motive behind the murder.

''Such crimes substantially undermine the prestige of any state, and therefore this murder can play right into the hands of the enemies of our state,'' one police official told Interfax news agency.

In the days before her death, Politkovskaya had been working on a story about torture in Chechnya, which was expected to be published tomorrow, her newspaper said.

REUTERS LL VV1415