On the morning of July 4, Elena Milashina, a journalist with the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, and Alexandre Nemov, a lawyer, were beaten on their way to a trial in Grozny, Chechnya. Images document the extreme violence of the attack. According to the Crew Against Torture, a Russian human rights organisation that is supporting the two victims, the attackers may be linked to authorities in the Chechen Republic.
In a video published by Ostorozhno Novosti, an independent Russian Telegram channel, a woman can be seen lying on a hospital bed, her face covered in a blue-green substance, both arms and hands bandaged.
"[The assailants] threw the taxi driver out of his car, got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands and put me on my knees with a gun to my head", Milashina explains in the video.
According to the Crew Against Torture and Memorial, another Russian human rights association, lawyer Alexandre Nemov and journalist Elena Milashina were attacked at 5am (4am Paris time) on Tuesday, July 4 in Grozny. They were ambushed on the road between the airport and the centre of Grozny by a group of 10 to 12 people forming a roadblock of three cars.
'We warned you. Get out of here and don't write anything'
They kicked and clubbed Milashina, breaking several of her fingers and causing various head injuries, before shaving her head and spraying her with green antiseptic, a product used in the past in attacks on members of the Russian opposition, including Alexei Navalny. Nemov was also beaten and struck in the leg, probably with a knife, according to the NGO.
According to Memorial, before fleeing, the assailants destroyed the journalist's documents and equipment, and threatened her: "We warned you. Get out of here and don't write anything".
Milashina and Nemov had travelled to Chechnya to attend the trial of Zarema Musaeva, the wife of an opponent of Ramzan Kadyrov, president of the Chechen Republic. Musaeva's sons, the Yangulbaev brothers, are themselves opponents of the regime and are currently living in exile in Europe.
Officially accused of "assaulting a representative of the forces of law and order", Musaeva, who suffers from a number of health problems, was sentenced on Tuesday to five and a half years in prison.
'They clearly had access to some sort of movement recording database'
"Elena is very traumatised. She faints all the time," Olga Sadovskaya of the Crew Against Torture told the FRANCE 24 Observers team. The association is currently trying to evacuate Milashina and Nemov to Moscow, out of concern that they will be subjected to improper treatment in Chechnya.
Sadovskaya explains:
We believe that the assailants may be linked to the local authorities.
It was a large-scale operation, involving three cars, twelve people with guns, visible. Everything took place on the road, under CCTV cameras.
They clearly had access to some sort of movement recording database. Now, in principle, it's very difficult to obtain this without some kind of authorisation from the Chechen authorities.
In Chechnya, the authorities have not investigated any of the attacks committed in the country over the last 15 years. The investigation following this attack will no doubt be unsuccessful.
The journalist and the lawyer refused to talk to the police. Sadovskaya explained that this lack of action is part of a strategy to deter journalists.
The authorities no longer want human rights activists and journalists to come to Chechnya to investigate the situation in the region.
There have been so many cases of major attacks on journalists in Chechnya that it is very rare for any of them to go there today.
Attacks and murders of journalists covering Chechnya
In 2016, a busload of Russian and foreign journalists travelling to Grozny was attacked by masked men. They were beaten up and the bus was burned.
Elena Milashina had replaced Anna Politkovskaya at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, covering the Caucasus, after Politkovskaya's assassination in 2006. Anna Politkovskaya specialised in coverage of Chechnya.
In February 2020, Milashina was attacked in the lobby of her hotel after Kadyrov publicly threatened her.
Novaya Gazeta is one of the few independent newspapers in Russia, with part of its editorial staff based in Moscow despite a publication ban, and another part working from Latvia. Five of its journalists have been murdered in the last twenty-five years.
