在她在莫斯科仅存的几家为数不多的独立报纸之一新报上所发表的文章，以及她的著作《普京的俄罗斯：民主正在消失的生活》和《一场肮脏的战争：一个在车臣的俄罗斯记者》中，波利特科夫卡娅描述了在普京总统的统治下鲜明的特征，那就是自由丧失。
In her articles for one of the few remaining independent papers in Moscow, Novaya Gazeta, and in her books “Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy” and “A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya,” Politkovskaya wrote of the vanishing freedoms that are the signature characteristic of Putin’s presidency.