True crime cases in Moscow

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  Apartment block, central Moscow, Russia · 2006

  Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya

  Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent critic of the Second Chechen War and of Vladimir Putin, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building elevator on 7 October 2006. After a lengthy and repeatedly stalled investigation, six people were eventually convicted of crimes related to her murder, though the identity of whoever ordered the killing was never conclusively established in court.

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  Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, Moscow, Russia · 2015

  Assassination of Boris Nemtsov

  Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was shot dead on a Moscow bridge near the Kremlin on 27 February 2015, hours after urging support for an anti-war march. Five Chechen men were later convicted of carrying out the killing for payment, but the identity of whoever ordered it has never been established.

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  Bittsa Park, Moscow, Russia · 1992

  Alexander Pichushkin (Chessboard Killer)

  Alexander Pichushkin, a Moscow warehouse worker, was convicted in 2007 of murdering 49 people and attempting to murder three others in and around Bittsa Park between 1992 and 2006, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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• Credit: евгений измайлов·CC BY-SA 3.0·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Apartment buildings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, Russia · 1999

  1999 Russian Apartment Bombings

  A series of explosions struck apartment blocks in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing more than 300 people and helping trigger the Second Chechen War amid disputed accounts of who was responsible.

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• Credit: МЧС России·CC BY 4.0·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Moscow Metro (Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations), Moscow, Russia · 2010

  2010 Moscow Metro bombings

  Two female suicide bombers detonated explosives during rush hour at Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations in Moscow on March 29, 2010, killing at least 40 people and injuring over 100. Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility.

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  Borovitsky Gate, Kremlin, Moscow · 1969

  Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev

  On 22 January 1969, Viktor Ilyin, a deserter from the Soviet Army disguised as a police officer, fired on a Kremlin motorcade intending to kill Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, mistakenly targeting a car carrying returning cosmonauts instead. A driver was killed and several people were injured; Brezhnev was unharmed.

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• Credit: Orlovic·CC BY-SA 3.0·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Near Avtozavodskaya subway station, Zamoskvoretskaya Line, Moscow Metro · 2004

  February 2004 Moscow Metro bombing

  A suicide bomber killed 41 people and injured up to 250 on a Moscow Metro train near Avtozavodskaya station on 6 February 2004; three men were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for organizing the attack.

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• Credit: Shuvaev·CC BY-SA 3.0·SourceSOLVEDListen

  Warehouse on Chermanskaya Street, northeast Moscow, Russia · 2012

  2012 Moscow shooting

  On 7 November 2012, a lone gunman killed six people and injured one other at a Moscow pharmaceutical warehouse before being subdued by a colleague; he was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

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  Dubrovka Theater (House of Culture of State Ball-Bearing Plant Number 1), Moscow · 2002

  Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis

  On 23 October 2002, Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev seized the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow during a performance of Nord-Ost, taking roughly 850–900 people hostage. After a three-day standoff, Russian special forces pumped an opioid-based gas into the building and stormed it on 26 October; all 40 hostage-takers were killed, and 132 hostages died, most from the effects of the gas.

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  Mokhovaya Street, near Red Square and the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow, Russia · 2003

  2003 Red Square bombing

  A suicide bombing on Mokhovaya Street near Red Square in Moscow on 9 December 2003 killed six people and injured 14, after a female suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt on a busy street close to the Kremlin.

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