Reuters:
President Vladimir Putin vowed on Tuesday to hunt down the killers of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, saying he had information they wanted to whip up anti-Russian feelings across the world.
Questions about the contract-style killing, which has drawn global condemnation, dominated a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that also touched on business and energy issues.
Putin did not elaborate on his information about the killers of Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the president and Russia's war in Chechnya.
"We must be clear that it was a dreadful and unacceptable crime which cannot be allowed to go unpunished," Putin said in his first public remarks on the killing.
"We have information, and it is trustworthy, that there are people hiding from Russian justice and nurturing plans to sacrifice someone as a victim to create a wave of anti-Russian sentiments worldwide," he said through an interpreter.
"(Politkovskaya) had minimal influence on political life in Russia. This murder does much more harm to Russia and Chechnya than any of her publications."
Russian prosecutors have linked Politkovskaya's murder to her work. She won prominence for her defence of human rights and criticism of government policies, particularly the Kremlin's conduct of the war against separatists in Chechnya.
Putin was heckled by a man in the crowd over the murder as he got out of his limousine in the eastern city of Dresden, where he served as a KGB agent in the 1980s.
Waving a banner with "Murderer" on it, the man shouted: "You're a murderer, you're not welcome here."
Politkovskaya, 48, was gunned down in her apartment block on Saturday. Thousands of mourners, including Western ambassadors, attended her funeral in Moscow in Tuesday.