A journalist and a lawyer have been brutally beaten in the Russian province of Chechnya - in a shocking assault that has highlighted a pattern of human rights abuses in the region.
Prominent investigative reporter Elena Milashina sustained a brain injury in the attack on Tuesday and had several fingers broken, while lawyer Alexander Nemov suffered a deep cut on his leg, reported newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Ms Milashina, who works for Novaya Gazeta, has long exposed human rights violations in Chechnya and has faced threats, intimidation and attacks.
She and Mr Nemov had just arrived in Chechnya to attend the trial of Zarema Musayeva - the mother of two local activists who have challenged Chechen authorities - when they were attacked.
Just outside the airport, their vehicle was blocked by several cars and they were attacked by several unidentified masked assailants who beat them with clubs, put guns to their heads and broke their equipment.
They were taken to a hospital in Chechnya’s main city, Grozny, and later to Beslan in the nearby region of North Ossetia.
The newspaper said Milashina repeatedly lost consciousness.
Speaking from a hospital bed in a video, she said the attack looked like a “classic abduction.”
“They threw the driver out of the car, got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, forced me down to my knees and put a gun to my head,” she said, adding that the assailants were visibly nervous and had trouble tying her hands.
A photo from a hospital showed her talking over the phone, with green antiseptic covering her face and multiple bruises on her shaven head. Officials were considering their medical evacuation to Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the incident. Mr Peskov added that “it was a very serious assault that warrants energetic measures” from law enforcement agencies.
Russian human rights ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova asked investigators to look into the violent attack.
The Russian Ministry for Digital Development and Mass Communications denounced the “monstrous assault” on Ms Milashina and Mr Nemov and said it will offer them the necessary assistance. The ministry added that it urged law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the attack and punish the perpetrators.
Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee, the country’s top state criminal investigation agency, ordered a probe into the attack.
The strong statements and a quick response from Russian authorities contrasted with a muted official reaction to previous attacks on Ms Milashina and other journalists and human rights activists who have exposed human rights abuses in Chechnya.
It is not the first time Ms Milashina has been attacked. In 2020, she and a lawyer accompanying her were beaten by a dozen people in the lobby of their hotel. Last year, she temporarily left Russia after she was threatened by Chechen authorities.
She has won broad acclaim for her investigative reporting, which included exposing the torture and killings of gay people in Chechnya and other abuses by feared Chechen paramilitary forces.
In 2013, Ms Milashina received an International Women of Courage Award from the US Department of State.
Hours after Tuesday’s attack on Ms Milashina and Mr Nemov, a court in Grozny sentenced Zarema Musayeva to five years in prison on charges of insulting and violently resisting police, an accusation that rights groups have rejected as trumped-up.
Musayeva had been in custody in Grozny since Chechen security forces grabbed her from her home in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and drove her to Chechnya in January 2022.
Her husband, a former judge, and her two activist sons have left Chechnya. Chechnya’s strongman regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has accused the Musayev family of having terrorist links and said that they should be imprisoned or killed.
