Award-Winning Russian Journalist And Lawyer Badly Beaten In Chechnya
Journalist #Yelena#Milashina and lawyer #Aleksandr#Nemov have been moved to a hospital in Moscow, the #Novaya#Gazeta publication reported on Telegram on July 5. They sustained multiple injuries, the rights group reported.
"Milashina's fingers have been broken, and she is sometimes losing consciousness. She has bruises all over her body," the group said on social media. It added that Nemov had been stabbed in the leg.
"It was a classic kidnapping.... They pinned our driver down, threw him out of his car, got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, knelt me down there, and put a gun to my head," Milashina told Mansur Soltayev, a Chechen human rights official, as she lay in a hospital in Grozny shortly after the attack.
Milashina and Nemov had traveled to Chechnya to attend the sentencing by a court of #Zarema#Musayeva, the jailed mother of three self-exiled outspoken Chechen opposition activists, Ibragim, Abubakar, and Baisangur #Yangulbayev, all of whom have fled the country citing harassment from Chechen authorities over their online criticism of Kremlin-backed Chechen head Ramzan #Kadyrov.
Novaya Gazeta Journalist Diagnosed With Brain Injury, Multiple Fractures After Attack In Chechnya
"#Milashina is in Moscow in hospital. Her condition is, frankly, difficult. She was really severely beaten," #Dmitry#Muratov, the editor in chief of the independent newspaper #Novaya#gazeta, told AFP.
The journalist said in the video that around 10 to 15 attackers had beaten her with plastic pipes.
She said that authorities routinely used such pipes to attack detainees in Chechnya, and that she had written about the practice before.
"It is a powerful weapon," she said in the video. "It really hurt."
Since 2000, Novaya gazeta has seen six of its journalists and contributors killed.
Muratov, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, suspended the newspaper’s operations in March 2022 after receiving warnings from state communications regulator Roskomnadzor regarding its coverage of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Milashina, 45, who covers rights abuses in #Chechnya for Russia's top independent newspaper, Novaya gazeta, received a #brain#injury, bruises, and up to 14 #fractures in her hands in the beating, Novaya gazeta said on July 5 after she was examined in a Moscow clinic.
Milashina is conscious and in stable condition, Novaya gazeta Europe said, citing doctors. The condition of #Nemov, who was stabbed in the leg, has not been reported.
The newspaper released pictures of Milashina showing both her hands bandaged. The attackers also shaved her head and doused green antiseptic on her face and head.
Milashina noted that the attackers grabbed her equipment but didn’t touch cash and other valuables that she and Nemov had with them, leaving her certain that the attack was #directly#related to their #professional#work in Chechnya.
According to Novaya Gazeta Europe 'Elena #Milashina who was brutally attacked yesterday in #Chechnya , has been diagnosed with a closed brain injury, up to 14 carpal bone fractures and multiple bruises.
She is now at a hospital in Moscow.
The pictures are so bad content warning wouldn't do
#Russia: The brutal attack on #NovayaGazeta journalist Elena Milashina & lawyer Aleksandr Nemov in #Chechnya is an appalling act of violence that shows contempt for #HumanRights & #PressFreedom. It must not remain unpunished.
RT AlexKokcharov: In #Grozny, #Chechnya, south #Russia, Novaya Gazeta @novayagazeta_en reporter Elena Milashina was physically attacked earlier today. The attackers broke her fingers on both hands, beat her, forcibly shaved her head and doused her with brilliant green.
Unidentified individuals wearing masks have attacked and severely beaten Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov in Chechnya [Federal Subject of Russia; Ukrainian parliament recognised it as temporarily Russian-occupied territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria]; the girl?s fingers were broken...
#Russia rule of law at a glance: Zarema Musaeva is an elderly woman from #Chechnya whose only fame is being mother of three brothers who are suspected of being authors of a Telegram channel known for criticism of #Kadyrov.
After the brothers left Russia due to repressions, Russian authorities switched to their family, arrested numerous relatives and ultimately their mother. Her husband and daughter managed to leave Russia after her arrest.
She spent the last one and a half year in detention, suspected of violently attacking a policeman, accusation so absurd that even Russian journalists snark at it.
Today the court in Grozny was expected to sentence her to 5 years in prison, so two human rights activist Elena Milashina and lawyer Aleksandr Nemov traveled to Grozny to attend the court. Right at the exit from airport they were kidnapped and beaten, with Milashina’s fingers broken and head shaved. Nobody had any doubts that it was done by Kadyrovites, who hold a complete monopoly on violence in the republic, and Kadyrov has a long history of threatening or killing human rights activists.
Russian “system opposition” and “system journalists” have a complex relationship with Chechnya: on one hand they despise Kadyrov and are afraid of him, on the other hand they respect him as an armed hand of Putin. This incident caused some theatrical outrage among Russian officials, including “ombudsman” Tatyana Moskalkova who “intervened” and got Kadyrov’s promise to “protect” the beaten activists who are now in hospital in Grozny.
Many Russians in such cases either cheer about “they got what they wanted” or dismiss such news with “that’s just Chechnya” argument, which is a rather direct admission that Russia’s control of Chechnya holds on a very fragile and personal agreement between Putin and Kadyrov.
Formally, Chechnya is subject of Russian Federation and all laws of the latter apply in the republic, but granted that these laws apply selectively even in Russia nobody even raises this argument for Chechnya…
🇷🇺 #Chechen leader #RamzanKadyrov said "his forces were ready to help put down a mutiny by #Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny #Prigozhin and to use harsh methods if necessary" and that Chechen troops are on their way to "zones of tension." (Reuters)
Bloody hell, literally.
Sadistic despot sees a fresh opportunity to commit crimes against humanity, licks lips and shouts, "LFG!"
Yurchak on how not to understand Russians' popular support (or lack of, or ambivalence towards) the war on #Ukraine.
"It’s not my job to comfort you. In fact, this is a catastrophe, including a moral one, we are all participating in a moral catastrophe. The catastrophe is not that everyone in Russia is fooled and supporting the war, but that people are simply powerless, they cannot mobilize against it, at least not yet."
It is a catastrophe, but it’s almost entirely self-inflicted. I was in #Russia plenty of times since Putin got into power: I was there during second war in #Chechnya, war in #Georgia, I was there when the first Internet censorship laws were introduced, during Bolotnaya protests, during #Euromaidan, war in #Donbass etc. All I heard from majority of Russians was continued justification of Putin, continued contempt and hatred towards everyone who dared to disagree and, most importantly, continued excuses for continued limiting of their own rights. They are powerless today because they wanted to be powerless in 2011-2012 when they happily delegated all their lives to Putin and childishly believed he will take them to the stars.
Broken fingers and shaved head: journalist and lawyer severely beaten in Russia's Chechnya (www.pravda.com.ua)
Unidentified individuals wearing masks have attacked and severely beaten Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov in Chechnya [Federal Subject of Russia; Ukrainian parliament recognised it as temporarily Russian-occupied territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria]; the girl?s fingers were broken...