- Renowned Russian Journalist Severely Injured in Attack
- Assaulted Outside Airport: Journalist and Lawyer Targeted
- Kremlin and Chechen Authorities Respond to the Monstrous Assault
Ms. Milashina sustained a brain injury and several fractured fingers, while Mr. Nemov sustained a deep cut on his leg.
An award-winning Russian journalist was severely hurt in a masked attack.
Yelena Milashina had just arrived in the Russian province where she was expected to witness the sentencing of Zarema Musayeva, a woman who had allegedly been unjustly persecuted for political reasons.
Ms. Milashina and her lawyer, Alexander Nemov, were assaulted outside the airport while travelling to Grozny, Chechnya.
Multiple cars surrounded their vehicle, and several masked assailants held guns to their heads and smashed their equipment.
According to the journalist’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, Ms. Milashina sustained a brain injury and multiple fractured fingers. While Mr. Nemov sustained a deep cut on his leg.
Both were transported to a hospital in Grozny, where she lost consciousness repeatedly.
In a video from her hospital bed, Ms. Milashina, who received the International Women of Courage Award from the US Department of State in 2013, described the assault as a “classic abduction.
She has also been seen speaking on the phone with antiseptic on her face and bruises on her shaved scalp.
Ms. Milashina stated, “They threw the driver out of the car, then got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, forced me to my knees, and put a gun to my head.”
The Kremlin called it a “very serious attack” and demanded an inquiry, notifying Vladimir Putin.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya and a close ally of the Russian president, wrote on Telegram, “We’ll figure it out. I have ordered the appropriate authorities to make every effort to identify the assailants.”
‘Monstrous assault’
In the meantime, the Russian ministry of digital development and mass communications referred to it as a “monstrous assault” and stated that it would aid both parties.
A few hours after the attack, a Chechen court sentenced Zarema Musayeva to five and a half years in prison on charges of insulting and violently resisting police, charges that human rights groups have rejected and deemed to be fraudulent.
Ms. Musayeva is the mother of two local activists who have taken on the Chechen government.
Ms. Milashina has also investigated alleged human rights violations in Chechnya. Including the alleged mass arrest and torture of homosexual men.
She had previously been the target of death threats.
Her company also relocated her from Russia after Kadyrov called her a terrorist on social media. Chechnya attacked her in 2020.
Kadyrov denies human rights violations, stating that such allegations are fabricated by detractors seeking to discredit Chechnya and its government.
