The man suspected of shooting Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 has been arrested in Chechnya and is due to be brought to Moscow, the BBC reported.

After evading authorities for nearly five years, chief suspect Rustam Makhmudov was arrested overnight at his parents' home, his lawyer told AFP news agency.

Politkovskaya's murder, an apparent contract killing outside her home in the Russian capital, sent an eerie message about the hazards of challenging contemporary Russia's powerful.

Two of Makhmudov's brothers had been accused of acting as his accomplices, one as his lookout and the other his driver, and a former police investigator had been accused of hiring the Makhmudov brothers and overseeing logistics.

All three men were tried and acquitted for lack of evidence in 2009; Russia's Supreme Court would ultimately overturn the verdict and order they be retried.

Politkovskaya was a human rights activist and Russia's most famous investigative journalist, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reported from Moscow. She was also a fierce critic of the Kremlin's policy in Chechnya, and, particularly, of its leader, Ramazan A Kadyrov, a loyal lieutenant to tehn-President Vladimir Putin.

A lawyer for Politkovskaya's family denied the arrest was a significant breakthrough, as investigators have yet to establish who ordered the assassination.

On Oct. 7, 2006, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in an elevator at her apartment block with a pistol and four bullets lying near her body.

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