Russian journalist's murder 'political homicide': Gorbachev

ROME: The murder of Russian investigative journalist and government critic Anna Politkovskaya was a "political homicide", former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said in an interview published on Monday.   

"Whoever killed Anna Politkovskaya should be damned. This was a true political homicide, a vendetta," Gorbachev told the daily La Repubblica.   

"And it's a hard blow for freedom of the press and for those who fight for democracy in our country," he said.   

Gorbachev, who owns shares in Novaja Gazeta, the liberal newspaper for which Politkovskaya worked, said she was a friend, adding: "I feel struck personally."   

Politkovskaya, 48, was shot in her apartment building in an execution-style killing as she stepped out of an elevator on Saturday. She had been finishing a report alleging torture of Chechen civilians by Moscow-backed militias.   

But the theory that the government ordered her killing was "simplistic," Gorbachev said, adding: "It's clear that (her killers) wanted to shut her up, and they did that... She was inconvenient and had more than one enemy."   

Politkovskay's work led her to "Chechnya, and more and more to corruption in the army and in the country," he said. "There will have to be an investigation in these two directions."   

However, he dismissed the idea that Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov could have been behind the killing, saying it would "not be in his interest" at a time when Chechnya is less prominent in the news.