Russian prosecutors said they have detained ten suspects in the murder of reporter Anna Politkovskaya, but that the killing was masterminded from abroad by people trying to discredit Russia.
Chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, said serious progress has been made in the investigation into her murder.
Mr Chaika told reporters an investigation showed that Ms Politkovskaya had been killed by an organised crime group.
He added that those arrested are expected to be charged in the near future in connection with her death.
He said the same group may have been involved in two other high-profile murders: the 2004 killing of US reporter Paul Klebnikov and the shooting last year of central bank deputy chief Andrei Kozlov.
Investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Politkovskaya was shot in the stairwell of her apartment building in central Moscow on 7 October last year.
As a journalist for the independent weekly Novaya Gazeta, she was almost alone in the Russian media in probing war crimes in Chechnya. She also wrote a series of books critical of Russian President Vladamir Putin's rule.
The murder put an international spotlight on dangers faced by journalists in Russia, where the most powerful media organisations are under state control and criticism of the Kremlin is rare.
According to the International Federation of Journalists, more than 80 journalists have been murdered for 'professional reasons' since 1993.
Former colleagues of Ms Politkovskaya's at Novaya Gazeta have said they suspect she was murdered in connection with a report she was preparing into alleged torture in Chechnya.
