I read about this before I went to sleep last night, and sure put me in a bad mood.

To be honest, I never heard of the woman before the terrible tragedy happened. But the more I read about her, the more grief I felt.

I spoke with a veteran American journalist friend of mine in Cairo, who covered the war in Chechnya and was based in Moscow in the 1990s. He knew Anna, and described her as “very, very brave,” he said. “Her coverage during the war was great, but more importantly her post-war coverage. She did many stories on the mass killings by Russians and their proxies, on atrocities against Chechnyan detainees… That made many in Moscow upset. They did not want to hear about this sort of thing… You know, in many ways, being a reporter in Russia is more dangerous that it is here in Egypt.” My friend then went on listing names of reporters killed by gangs or local government officials for pursuing stories about corruption or human rights abuses.

May she rest in peace…

UPDATE: Putin pressed over Moscow murder