"All criminal cases involving attacks on journalists will be thoroughly investigated regardless of when they were committed," Medvedev said, addressing German politicians and businessmen in Berlin.
Russia remains one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters. According to data from the international organization Reporters Without Borders, 21 journalists were murdered in Russia between 2000 and 2007.
Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who gained international recognition for her criticism of the Kremlin and reports of military atrocities against civilians in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, was gunned down in the entranceway of her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.
Another high-profile murder was that of Paul Klebnikov, a U.S. journalist of Russian descent and the first editor of Forbes Russia. Klebnikov gained an international reputation for investigating murky business deals and corruption in the post-Soviet era. He was shot dead as he left his office in central Moscow in July 2004.
No one has as yet been found guilty of either murder.
