THE newspaper where slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya worked has offered 25 million roubles ($1.25 million) for information leading to her killers amid widespread international condemnation of the murder.
A gunman shot Politkovskaya, one of President Vladimir Putin's strongest critics, four times as she brought her shopping home to her Moscow apartment on Saturday. The 48-year-old mother-of-two died on the spot.
Mr Putin gave the first official Russian reaction to Politkovskaya's murder, although his comments were confined to an account of a telephone conversation with US President George W. Bush.
In the course of the conversation Mr Putin stressed that Russia's law-enforcement bodies will take every step to investigate objectively the tragic death of the journalist Politkovskaya, a Kremlin statement said.
Russian investigators and commentators believe the killing was motivated by Politkovskaya's fiercely critical reporting, which won her numerous international awards.
Politkovskaya worked for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.
Its publishers, who include former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, offered the reward to anyone who could help find those who ordered the killing, organised it and carried it out .
The murder is a challenge to basic values of our society, the newspaper said.
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