Chechen attackers brutalise Russian reporter amidst political tensions

A brutal assault has been launched on renowned investigative reporter, Yelena Milashina, by a group of masked men, shortly after landing in the Russian republic of Chechnya. She recounts a chilling ordeal, where she was seized, forced out of her car, savagely attacked with plastic pipes, her head ruthlessly shaved and doused in green dye within the proximity of the airport.

It is worth noting that Milashina has previously been targeted with death threats from the infamous leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. She had company on her trip – a lawyer by the name of Alexander Nemov, who too suffered injuries in the attack.

Their arrival at Grozny Airport was in anticipation of a court verdict for a mother of three, Zarema Musayeva, a vocal critic of Kadyrov, who was later handed a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence in a case seen by many as being politically charged. Their assault, however, meant they were unable to attend the hearing.

Since 2007, Chechnya has been under the rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, a fierce ally of Vladimir Putin and a supporter of the war in Ukraine. Kadyrov has been extensively accused of sanctioning extrajudicial assassinations, abductions, and horrendous human rights violations in his own country.

Milashina and Nemov paint a horrific picture of the incident, recounting how their vehicle was intercepted by a group of around ten masked men in three cars, near the airport. They believe that these attackers had been lingering inside the airport waiting for them.

Milashina described her experience to a human rights official from Chechnya, recounting in hospital…

“It was a classic kidnapping. They pinned me down then threw our driver out of his car, climbed in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, forced me to my knees and put a gun to my head.”

Nemov was quoted as saying while narrating the ordeal to the Russian bar association…

“They threw us on the side of the road and started kicking us in the face, all over the body… they stabbed me in the leg.”

The brutal saga continued with the victims being dragged into a ravine and severely beaten with plastic polypropylene pipes.

Milashina told Sergei Babinets of the rights group Crew against Torture…

“They didn’t understand, and by the time they did they had already shaved me and poured green dye on me and I didn’t see a thing.”

The green dye, typically an antiseptic, has previously been used in attacks launched against dissidents in Russia, such as Alexei Navalny. Milashina sustained a brain injury from the attack and initially, it was thought she had three fractured fingers. However, the hospital later clarified that her fingers were not broken. Nemov also suffered major injuries and Crew Against Torture confirmed this by posting an image showing the stab injury to his leg.

While the Kremlin posited that the attack was of severe gravity and deserving of an investigation, Memorial, a human rights group banned by Russia, had a different perspective. They state that the Moscow and Grozny authorities were unequivocally aligned in their actions.

Milashina vacated Russia temporarily in February 2022 following Kadyrov branding her as a terrorist and threatening to exterminate terrorists and any who align with them. Milashina had previously been a victim of a similar attack in 2020, with lawyer Marina Dubrovina being another victim.

Her investigative reporting brought to light the human rights violations being committed in Chechnya. She follows in the daunting footsteps of two female pioneers who were slain for similar work in the region. Ann Politkovskaya, Milashina’s colleague at Novaya Gazeta, was murdered in 2006 in Moscow, while Natalia Estemirova, a human rights campaigner, was kidnapped and fatally shot in Grozny.

Milashina expressed last week in a conversation with the BBC’s Ukrainecast that she is entirely cognizant of the fact that Kadyrov and his associates could easily act on the death threats issued to her.

Condemning the “cowardly attack,” Amnesty International implored the Russian authorities to promptly apprehend the culprits and assure the safety of those who seek truth and justice. An official from the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, expressed grave concern over the attack, viewing it as part of the increasingly hostile environment targeted against journalists and contributors of Novaya Gazeta.

The notorious Chechen leader, also a supporter of the Kremlin, dispatched troops, known as “Kadyrovtsy,” to Ukraine last year. They have since gained a reputation for their violent actions. Furthermore, Kadyrov is believed to have orchestrated the murder of Russian opposition figure, Boris Nemtsov.

Kadyrov was given the presidency of the southern Russian republic by Putin three years after the assassination of his father in 2004.

The 53 year old Zarema Musayeva was arrested last year by security officers in Chechnya, some 1,800 kilometres north of Grozny. Following the incident, Kadyrov proclaimed that the entire family deserved to be either imprisoned or dead. Musayeva’s three sons, having publicly criticized Kadyrov’s human rights abuses, fled Chechnya. Her husband, a former judge, was also detained briefly before fleeing.