Another Killing in Moscow

Anna Politkovskaya, gunned down over the weekend in Moscow, was the 13th Russian journalist killed since Vladimir Putin became president - and one of the bravest. We may never know who killed her because politically motivated crimes have a way of never being solved in Mr. Putin's Russia.

There is no question about whom Ms. Politkovskaya held responsible in years of unflinching reporting from Chechnya: the Russian Army and Mr. Putin himself. When he finally got around to acknowledging her death yesterday it was in a cold-blooded statement that the authorities "will take every step to investigate objectively the tragic death of the journalist Politkovskaya."