"Anna Politkovskaya was a very bold woman and a real journalist. She was always on the side of the weak and oppressed. And she always was in the thick of events, and did not watch from the side," Veltroni said during the unveiling ceremony of a plaque with the journalist's name.
The ceremony was also attended by Politkovskaya's daughter Vera, Russian embassy officials and colleagues from Novoya Gazeta newspaper, where she worked up until her murder.
Her daughter Vera said, "It feels strange being here and seeing the plaque with mum's name a year after her death."
Politkovskaya, known for her criticism of the Kremlin's policy in Chechnya, was gunned down in an apparent contract killing in an elevator of her apartment building October 7, 2006 in Moscow, aged 48.
