A Russian journalist who tirelessly reported on the effects of war on the civilian population in Chechnya was shot to death Saturday in Moscow.

Prosecutors believe Anna Politkovskaya's killing may be connected to her investigative work in Chechnya, and police have launched a murder investigation into her death.

Politkovskaya made enemies on both sides of the Russia-Chechnya conflict, and was well known for documenting widespread abuse of civilians at the hands of Russian troops, and a book she wrote criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin's campaign in Chechnya.

CTV's Moscow Bureau Chief Ellen Pinchuk said Politkovskaya understood the dangers of her work.

"Anna Politkovskaya was really in a class of her own," Pinchuk told CTV Newsnet. "She took upon herself the very tough subject of Chechnya and Russian policy in Chechnya, the wars there. She went there dozens of times, if not hundreds, to report primarily on the civilian population, the toll that over 10 years of fighting on and off had taken on them."

"She was in constant danger, she knew that. She told me in an interview her choice had cost her her marriage, and ultimately it cost her today her life as well, we think."

The 48-year-old's body was found in an elevator in her apartment building and a pistol and bullets were found at the scene, The Associated Press reports.

The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that Politkovskaya was shot twice, the second time in the head.

No stranger to danger, Politkovskaya had frequently been threatened for her work, and unknown assailants recently tried to break into the car her daughter was driving, Oleg Panfilov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations told AP.

In 2001, Politkovskaya spent several months in Vienna after receiving email threats that a Russian police officer was out for revenge. She had accused the officer, Sergei Lapin, of committing brutal crimes against civilians.

He was detained in 2002 based on her allegations, but his case was eventually dismissed.

Politkovskaya began reporting on the human side of the war in Chechnya in 1999 during Russia's second campaign there. She was courageous in her attempts to cover a difficult subject, Pinchuk said.

"She refused to back down. She was the one person who was keeping Chechnya on the front pages of Russian newspapers and who was always speaking out," she said.

"She was sort of the thorn in everyone's side, saying there's still a lot going on down there in terms of what's happening to civilians who live there and the way so-called order is being kept in Chechnya now."

Politkovskaya became known for her documentation of the killings, torture and beatings of civilians by Russian servicemen -- reports that put her at odds with many authorities.

"There are journalists who have this fate hanging over them," Panfilov said. "I always thought something would happen to Anya, first of all because of Chechnya."

In 2002, Politkovskaya was one of only a few people to enter the Moscow theatre where Chechen rebels had taken hundreds of hostages, as she tried to negotiate with the militants.

"Anna was a hero to so many of us, and we'll miss her personally, but we'll also miss the information that she and only she was brave enough and dedicated enough to dig out and make public, and that's a loss that I'm not sure can ever be replaced," Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists told AP.

Politkovskaya's death comes two years after the last high-profile killing of a journalist in Russia when Paul Klebnikov, editor of the Russian version of Forbes magazine was killed in 2004.

It comes on the same day two German journalists -- a man and a woman -- were killed while travelling on their own in northern Afghanistan. They are the first foreign journalists to be murdered in Afghanistan since 2001.

The pair was travelling in a Toyota four-wheel drive in Baghlan province and stopped just outside a village where they set up a tent to camp for the night, according to police.

Their bodies were found in the early morning by villagers who heard gunfire and rushed to the scene.

They had been killed by gunfire from an AK-47.

With files from The Associated Press