According to police, Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was murdered Saturday night in her apartment building in central Moscow.
"Shareholders of Novaya Gazeta announced a reward in the amount of 25 mln rubles for any information that can help the investigation," said Vitaly Yaroshevsky, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
He said the editor's office received the offer by e-mail earlier today from Alexander Lebedyev, a member of parliament who is among the newspaper shareholders together with former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika took Sunday the investigation into the killing of Politkovskaya, known for articles criticizing Russian authorities' actions in Chechnya, under his personal control.
Prosecutors said an unknown person clad in black shoot Politkovskaya in the chest and head at 17.15 Moscow time (1:15 p.m. GMT) on Saturday after apparently waiting for the reporter at an elevator to her apartment on Lesnaya Street in downtown Moscow.
They also said the killer knew an entry code to her building and was aware of her movements and time schedule during the day.
"It was a premeditated and well-planned crime," the police source said. "However, it is not clear why the killer did not destroy a surveillance camera and did not attempt to hide his face."
The source said the killer could be simply eliminated by those who possibly ordered the murder.
The investigation considers the journalist's professional activity as one of the most probable causes of the crime.
"The operatives started following the professional angle from the very beginning of the investigation," a police source said, adding that a common murder has not been ruled out either.
The U.S. State Department and a number of international human rights organizations, including the Amnesty International and Freedom House, have urged the Russian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into a murder of the independent journalist, who was well-known in the West, and bring justice upon the perpetrators of the crime.
