Moscow resident Galina Shustova, a former neighbour of assassinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya best-known for her coverage of the Chechen wars, stated she had personally destroyed two plaques installed in commemoration of the journalist. Journalists have found out that she is a supporter of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov.
On 8/12 Lesnaya Street, memorial plaques dedicated to Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot and killed there on 7 October 2006, were destroyed three times over the past week.
A man who came to the building with a photograph of Politkovskaya and found the latest plaque missing, said he had encountered an elderly female resident — Galina Shustova — at the entrance, who began filming him on her mobile phone and attempted to ‘call the police’ because of the recording. She also admitted to destroying the two previous plaques.
‘Yes, I broke them! Who gave you permission to put them up? She didn’t live here, she had a secret apartment! This is my building! I did not give permission!’, the woman said on a video published by the Telegram channel RusNews.
In another part of the recording, she expressed her belief that activists are paid for taking part in memorial events: ‘You are paid and you stand here and watch, idiots’, she said.
The woman also said that she did not break the original memorial plaque installed earlier, but that it had ‘always bothered’ her.
Responsibility for the destruction of the first plaque was claimed by members of a neo‑Nazi group in a closed Telegram channel.
After the first plaque was destroyed, activists installed a temporary cardboard plaque, which was also torn down the same day. On Tuesday night, activists installed the third memorial plaque, but it was also gone by the following morning.
According to the Russian independent media outlet Agency (Agentstvo), which analysed video recordings using a facial comparison service, 69‑year‑old Shustova admitted to destroying the temporary plaques. She is indeed registered at the building on 8/12 Lesnaya Street. Leaks indicate that in the 2000s, she worked in construction and wholesale trade companies.
Shustova has previously expressed support for Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov. In the early 2010s, she posted on social media calling Kadyrov ‘the pride of Russia’ and referring to his critics, including journalists reporting on Chechnya, as ‘scum’.
In 2016, in response to a flash mob criticising Kadyrov, she wrote: ‘Kadyrov is the PRIDE OF RUSSIA!!!’ and called the flash mob participants ‘servants of the West’.
Later, Shustova criticised media reports on torture in Chechnya and expressed negative views towards Chechen religious figures and journalists covering the region.
Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote extensively about events in Chechnya and Russian policy in the region, was killed in the entrance of her apartment building on Lesnaya Street on 7 October 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday and two days after Kadyrov’s birthday. The organisers of the crime were never officially identified, and the statute of limitations on the case expired in 2021, allowing them to evade punishment.
A former Chechen police officer convicted in 2014 for his alleged role in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya was reportedly pardoned in 2023 in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
Politkovskaya’s former colleagues at Novaya Gazeta have accused Kadyrov of being involved in her murder.
Luiza Mchedlishvili
