Politkovskaya, who worked for the Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta paper, was shot dead in October 2006 in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building. Although little-known in Russia, the Kremlin critic had gained a degree of international recognition for her reports of military atrocities against civilians in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya.
A lawyer for the defendants said that beginning on Monday the defense would start presenting their arguments to the court.
Three men have been charged with involvement in the murder. Chechen brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov are accused of conducting surveillance of Politkovskaya, while former policeman Sergei Khadzhikurbanov has been accused of assisting them.
The man suspected of pulling the trigger - Rustam, the eldest of the three Makhmudov brothers - remains at large.
A former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov, has also been charged with telling the killers where Politkovskaya lived.
