Almost eight years after the gruesome murder of Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia’s most respected investigative journalists, Moscow’s highest criminal court has finally sentenced five men to prison, two of them for life. The court ruled Monday that these men were part of a conspiracy to assassinate Ms. Politkovskaya in her apartment block on Oct. 7, 2006. These convictions signal some progress in Russia’s glacial investigations of the murder, but the case is not closed.

The five men, and one former policeman convicted earlier, were merely hired guns, carrying out somebody else’s orders. They were fulfilling what is believed to be a $150,000 contract to silence a tough-minded reporter. And because they are the agents, not the mastermind, the Politkovskaya murder case will not be closed until the person or persons who ordered this crime are identified and fully prosecuted.

Ms. Politkovskaya wrote vividly about human rights abuses in Chechnya and was known for her fierce and fearless criticism of both President Vladimir Putin and his handpicked Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Shortly after she was killed, Mr. Putin dismissed Ms. Politkovskaya’s work as “extremely insignificant for political life in Russia.” Perhaps because of such admonitions from the top, Russia’s investigation of this case has moved altogether too slowly. Among Ms. Politkovskaya’s supporters, there is a good deal of concern that whoever ordered this hit is too important or too well connected to be prosecuted.

Russia under Mr. Putin has a dreadful record when it comes to solving murders of journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Russia is the 10th worst country in the world when it comes to finding and prosecuting those who kill reporters and news-gatherers.