Baburova's political activity may be traced back to her having witnessed an attack by neo-Nazis on a foreigner, after which she wrote in her diary, "It is difficult to look in the eyes of a
Korean student, who has only just been struck in the temple by two juvenile thugs... they waved '
Sieg Heil' towards the tram and ran off." Baburova was active in the anarchist environmentalist movement. She participated in the activities of ecological camps, in social fora, including the Fifth
European Social Forum in
Malmö 2008, organised the 'Anti-capitalism 2008' festival, demonstrated widely, and was involved in anti-fascist activities more generally. In July 2008, Baburova participated in a demonstration against the felling of the
Khimki Forest. For her involvement in another protest against the eviction of former pork factory workers from the
Moscow factory, 'Smena' and impoverished
CIS immigrants she would spend a night in prison. The day before her murder, Anastasia appeared at the anarcho-communist unity event 'Autonomous Action'. Earlier she had written an article on behalf of the journal 'Avtonom'. Throughout 2008, Anastasia Baburova worked on the editorial team of the Russian newspaper,
Izvestia, and had had dozens of articles published by both
Izvestia and
Financial News, particularly on finance. Beginning in October 2008, she investigated (as a freelance-journalist)
Russian neo-Nazi groups for
Novaya Gazeta. In December 2008, she resigned from this post over the political course of the newspaper, which, according to the British weekly newspaper
The Economist, may be characterised by "nationalism, spinelessness and cynicism". == Death and investigation ==