More than 100 people gathered at a central Moscow square Wednesday to mark the death last month of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the end of the traditional Russian 40-day period of mourning, AP reported.

People stood silently holding lighted candles and portraits of the slain reporter, while others carried placards demanding that authorities solve the murder that shocked journalists, human rights advocates and foreign governments. Some placards read “Who Killed Her?” and “You Can’t Kill The Truth.”

Outside the Moscow apartment building where Politkovskaya was gunned down on Oct. 7, passers-by laid flowers. Some criticized authorities’ muted response to her death.

Meanwhile, Russia’s chief prosecutor said investigators are looking into the possibility that the slaying was ordered by a critic of the Kremlin living outside the country to escape prosecution. “We are checking a huge quantity of theories, including the theory of a foreign link,” Russian news agencies quoted Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika as saying.

Politkovskaya had written passionately and critically about abuses by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces fighting separatists in Chechnya.

President Vladimir Putin has suggested that some of the Kremlin’s critics could have plotted Politkovskaya’s killing to discredit the Russian government, a frequent target of her investigations.

Politkovskaya’s attackers have not been found. Rights groups said the killing underscored the risks faced by Russians who question or criticize the government.

Putin and other officials have repeatedly suggested that outside forces, primarily in the West, were seeking to undermine Russia.

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