After the attack on the journalist Milashina and the lawyer Nemov in Chechnya, both were transferred to a hospital in Moscow. The Kremlin described the incident as a “serious attack”.
Investigative journalist Yelena Milashina, who was attacked and injured in Chechnya, and lawyer Alexander Nemov, who was also injured, have been flown to Moscow. Both were transferred to a hospital in the Russian capital, the former editor-in-chief of the dissolved Kremlin-critical radio station “Echo Moskvy”, Alexey Venediktov, reported in the messenger service Telegram.
Venediktov, together with the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and journalist Dmitry Muratov, brought his colleague Milashina and Nemov back to Moscow by plane from Chechnya. Muratov is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, a medium that is critical of the Kremlin and works abroad in exile, for which the Russian journalist Milashina has been working for years and also reports from Chechnya.
“They put a gun to our heads”
Muratov continued to describe Milashina’s condition as worrying. “Her condition, frankly, is difficult,” he told AFP. Unknown persons had brutally beaten Milashina and Nemov on the way to the Chechen capital Grozny when they wanted to attend a court verdict there. The investigative journalist was seriously injured. After the attack, the Russian human rights organization Memorial reported that Milashina’s fingers had been broken, that she had bruises “all over her body” and that she was temporarily losing consciousness.
In a video from the hospital, Milashina described the incident: “They threw out the taxi driver, jumped in the car, pushed our heads down, tied my hands (…) and put a gun to our heads,” she said. The Russian human rights movement Committee Against Torture published photos of Milashina in the hospital. According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the attackers shaved off her hair and doused her with green dye. The attackers also tried to cut off her index finger to unlock her phone, Milashina said. The perpetrators gave up their plan just because the device didn’t recognize their fingerprint at the moment. According to Memorial, documents and technology were also destroyed.
After the attack, Milashina and Nemov were taken from Chechnya to a hospital in the neighboring Caucasus republic of North Ossetia.
Kremlin speaks of serious attack
Chechnya’s ruler Ramzan Kadyrov assured that he had instructed the responsible authorities “to do everything possible to identify the attackers”. Chechen Information Minister Akhmed Dudayev blamed “Western secret services” for the attack without providing any evidence, but at the same time accused Milashina of having “insulted the Chechen security authorities for years”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had been briefed on the incident. It is a “very serious attack that requires strict measures”. Later, Peskov said investigating the case would take time and investigators were doing their job. “Let’s wait and see,” said the Kremlin spokesman. “All reactions have been disseminated and now all actions are being taken.”
report about human rights violations
For years, the award-winning investigative journalist Milashina had reported on serious human rights violations in Chechnya, such as extrajudicial executions, for “Novaya Gazeta”. In February 2022, according to her newspaper, she had to leave Russia for a short time after threats from Kadyrov, who described her as a “terrorist”. As early as 2020, Chechnya’s ruler had threatened Milashina with death. Kadyrov leads the republic in the North Caucasus with an iron fist. Human rights activists repeatedly complain about the most serious crimes, including murder, torture and persecution.
Six journalists and employees have been killed at Novaya Gazeta since 2000, including investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.