“It was like before, it just wasn’t like this for a long time”

Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov were attacked in Chechnya. According to them, right near the Grozny airport, unknown armed men in masks dragged them out of a taxi and severely beat them. The attack was accompanied by bullying: the journalist was doused with brilliant green and her head was shaved. The lawyer was stabbed and advised “not to defend anyone here.” This is not the first such case: in 2020, Elena Milashina and lawyer Marina Dubrovina were beaten in the lobby of a hotel in Grozny. After the events on Tuesday, the authorities unanimously declared the inadmissibility of such crimes and demanded that the perpetrators be found. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, promised to “sort things out” in the situation, and his subordinates have already seen the “characteristic handwriting of Western intelligence services.”

The attack on Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov took place, according to them, in the morning not far from the Grozny airport. A taxi with a journalist and a lawyer was blocked by armed men in balaclavas. They threw the driver out of the car, drove it away, gutted the passengers’ bags, and then set about themselves. “They dragged us out, threw us to the side of the road and began to kick us in the face, in all parts of the body, with some other sticks, they stabbed me in the leg,” the Federal Chamber of Lawyers quotes the story of Alexander Nemov. “They put me on my knees, put a gun to my head, to the back of the head. They demanded that I beg them for mercy. They said that there was no reason for you to come here, work at home, you don’t need to protect anyone here.”

It should be noted that the lawyer and the journalist flew in to hear the verdict of Mr. Nemov’s client, Zarema Musaeva, the wife of the ex-judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic, Saydi Yangulbaev. Their son, Abubakar Yangulbaev, emigrated from Russia in early 2022, saying that he feared for his life because of criticism of the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. At the same time, the Chechen security forces detained Zarema Musaeva in Nizhny Novgorod and took her to Grozny, saying that they wanted to interrogate her as a witness in the fraud case. Later, the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the woman had scratched the policeman’s face during interrogation; Zarema Musayeva was charged with violence against a representative of the authorities (Part 2, Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The woman was sent to a pre-trial detention center, she was assisted by human rights activists from the “Team Against Torture” (formerly the “Committee against Torture”, entered by the Ministry of Justice into the register of foreign agents and self-liquidated), with whom Alexander Nemov cooperates.

In January 2022, the lawyer told the media that in Grozny he was being pointedly followed by unknown people in several cars. The Chamber of Advocates of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, which Mr. Nemov is a member of, notified law enforcement agencies of this.

According to Yelena Milashina, a “classic kidnapping” took place in Grozny on Tuesday:

“The way it used to be, it just wasn’t like that for a long time. They bent their heads, tied my hands, put me on my knees, a gun to my head. Somehow they did everything nervously, and they couldn’t tie their hands.”

The journalist, who was put on her knees, was shaved bald, her face and head were covered with green paint, and then they demanded to tell the code from the mobile phone. According to her, the attackers showed a bloody knife and threatened to cut off their fingers, and then started hitting them with a “polypropylene pipe”. At first, the media reported that the journalist’s fingers were broken, but later it turned out that there were severe bruises.

The attackers fled, after which the lawyer and the journalist were able to get to the Republican Clinical Hospital in Grozny. There they were visited by the Ombudsman of Chechnya, Mansur Soltaev, who accompanied Alexander Nemov and Elena Milashina to a hospital in Beslan (North Ossetia). At the same time, the Akhmatovsky District Court of Grozny announced the sentence to Zarema Musaeva – as requested by the prosecutor, five and a half years in prison.

Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Elena Milashina is known for publications about the Kursk submarine that sank in 2000, investigations into the Beslan terrorist attack, articles about the death of Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova. It was she who first spoke about the torture of gays in Chechnya. In 2006, an assassination attempt was made on Elena Milashina in Beslan. In January 2022, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called Mrs. Milashina a terrorist and called on law enforcement agencies to detain her. Last February, Novaya Gazeta reported that Ms. Milashina would leave Russia “due to numerous personal threats.”

It should be noted that Elena Milashina has already been attacked in Chechnya: in February 2020, unknown persons beat her and lawyer Marina Dubrovina in the lobby of the Continent Hotel in Grozny. At that time, the journalist and lawyer also came to the trial – in the case of local blogger Islam Nukhanov.

The past attack went largely unnoticed by the Russian authorities. This time it was different.

Photos of a shaved-headed journalist with a face covered in brilliant green, traces of blows on her head and plaster on her hands bypassed the social networks. They caused a public outcry – and a strong reaction. Human Rights Ombudsman in the Russian Federation Tatyana Moskalkova appealed to the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Chechen Republic and the Chechen prosecutor’s office with a demand to conduct an inspection to open a criminal case. The Presidential Council for Human Rights called the incident egregious and also sent inquiries to the ICR and the Prosecutor General’s Office. The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, called attacks on journalists “unacceptable, regardless of their position” and added that the deputies would appeal to the ICR and the Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to take control of the investigation into the attack. This was also stated by the deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Yevgeny Revenko, calling for resolving “all emerging issues in the legal field.” Andrey Klishas, ​​the head of the Federation Council committee on constitutional legislation and state building, demanded a “tough reaction from law enforcement agencies.” His colleague, head of the Federation Council commission on information policy, Alexei Pushkov, called the attack “a gross violation of human rights and the rights of journalists.” The head of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation Svetlana Volodina demanded to find the attackers “in hot pursuit”.

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin was informed about the situation. “Certainly, we are talking about a very serious attack that requires quite vigorous measures,” Mr. Peskov said, announcing the need for “investigative actions.” In turn, the head of the TFR of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed the Chechen department of the service to conduct an inspection and submit a report on its results to him.

“We’ll figure it out,” promised the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who, according to him, instructed “competent services to make every effort to identify the attackers.” The Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic and the investigative department of the TFR for the Chechen Republic announced the start of an investigation into the attack. Republican human rights ombudsman Mansur Soltayev told a checkpoint in a Grozny hospital that law enforcement would seize the video footage because there were traffic cameras at the scene of the incident. However, in the evening, Mr. Soltaev said that the identity of the attackers had not been established, since they were traveling “in a car without license plates.” At the same time, the Ombudsman characterized the incident as “another dirty provocation” against the image of Chechnya and the leadership of local law enforcement officers. Chechen Press Minister Akhmed Dudayev went even further in his reasoning, tracing in the attack “a characteristic handwriting of Western intelligence services.” In his opinion, the “authors of the scenario” of the attack did pursue the goal of discrediting Russia before the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius.

On July 4, Novaya Gazeta reported that they would beware of “putting forward any versions and accusations, except that those who attacked the journalist and lawyer are absolute scum.”

Alexander Voronov, Alexander Chernykh