Never upset the status quo and never draw too much attention to yourself.

While North American news agencies would never abide by such conventions, these guidelines serve as fundamental rules of engagement for Russian journalists.

While not the first – and likely not the last – Anna Politkovskaya was a prominent Russian journalist who pushed the boundaries, disregarded government warnings and lost her life because of it.

Politkovskaya, an outspoken and widely publicized critic of The Kremlin, devoted her life to bringing recognition to her choice cause – Chechnya. Never one to shy away from putting her true feelings in print, she wrote extensively on Russian military human rights abuses in the rebel-controlled territory.

Her decidedly hard-hitting pieces were published in the independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. Additionally, Politkovskaya published two books in English, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001) and Putin’s Russia (2004).

Seemingly ironic is Politkovskaya’s own writing about contract killings within Russia. In Putin’s Russia, she writes, “Lynch law is the order of the day, both in people’s minds and in their actions. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

On October 7, 2006, Politkovskaya was discovered dead in the stairwell of her central Moscow apartment building. The 48-year-old mother of two was found in what BBC called “a murder that carried all the hallmarks of a contract killing.” It has been widely rumoured that at the time of her death, Politkovskaya had a highly critical investigative piece on Chechnya in the works.

According to Reporters Without Borders, a worldwide advocacy group for press freedom, 20 journalists have been killed in connection with their work in Russia since March 2000 – the year Vladimir Putin came to power. In fact, Russia ranks among the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.

It was clear from the beginning; the investigation of Politkovskaya’s death and subsequent trial would be no cut-and-dry matter.

Throughout the hearings, several international publications emerged as vocal critics, openly questioning the legitimacy of the trial. The Guardian called the murder trial’s proceedings “chaotic, confused and even farcical.” Additionally, the British paper termed much of the evidence brought forth “contradictory, puzzling and downright strange.”

Dmitri Suslov, an expert with the independent Council on Foreign and Defense Policies in Moscow, explained, “I realize this looks a bit bizarre from a Western perspective, but it is in the nature of Russia’s political regime these days to assert that all things happen as a result of a particular political conspiracy.”

On February 19, a Moscow jury acquitted all accused in Politkovskaya’s murder. However, the “not guilty” verdict only fuelled feelings that any justice for Anna Politkovskaya had been denied. The BBC reported that even “pro-Kremlin newspapers accused Russia’s law enforcement agencies of utter impotence in investigating the murder.”

International reaction was swift and one French Foreign Ministry statement read, “The family of Anna Politkovskaya and her colleagues have a right to justice. The Russian people have a right to the truth.”

Despite protest from foreign outsiders, the Kremlin’s deliberate “no comment” manner comes as no surprise to people within the country.

In fact, a man who once worked for the Russian state prosecutor’s office recently revealed to the BBC that “there is a very small chance” that contract killings like Politkovskaya’s will ever be solved. The insider elaborated further, “In these sorts of cases, an order may come down from above not to investigate.” There is always fear, he said, “that [any investigation] might reveal the whole chain of people, right up to the one who ordered it.”