Human Rights Lawyer, Journalist Brutally Attacked In Chechnya, Kremlin Calls For 'Energetic Measures'

The assault on journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov was the most vicious in recent times, leading even to a rare rebuke from the Kremlin.

Elena Milashina in a hospital with bandages after the attack, her face is covered with green ink thrown by the attackers.

Source : Twitter/@AlexKokcharov

A human rights lawyer and a prominent Russian journalist were attacked by assailants in Chechnya’s capital in Grozny leaving them with stab wounds, broken fingers and head wounds. The assault on journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov was the most vicious in recent times, leading even to a rare rebuke from the Kremlin which called it a “very serious attack that requires rather energetic measures”. According to The Guardian, Milashina after the attack was in a hospital bed with both hands bandaged in gauze and her head and face covered in a green dye called ‘zelyonka’ that was thrown on her during the attack.

Meanwhile, Milashina, a journalist for Russia’s independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, is one of the country’s leading reporters on Chechnya, breaking stories including the Russian region’s 2019 campaign of torture and murder of members of the LGBT community.

Milashina and attorney Nemov were on their way from the airport to Grozny, where a verdict was expected in the case of Zarema Musayeva, whose detention is seen as retribution for her family’s political activism against Chechnya’s ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov.

On the way, Nemov and Milashina’s car was blocked by three cars carrying the assailants.

Milashina told Mansur Soltayev, a Chechen human rights official that it was ‘classic kidnapping’. “The driver was thrown out of the vehicle, they got in, bent our heads down, tied my hands, knelt me down there, and put a gun to my head,” she said.

Memorial, a rights group outlawed in Russia, said that Milashina and Nemov had been “brutally kicked, including in the face, threatened with death, had a gun held to their heads, and had their equipment taken away and smashed.”

“While being beaten, they were told: ‘You have been warned. Get out of here and don’t write anything,’” Memorial said in a statement on Telegram.

Despite being stabbed in the leg, Nemov still appeared at the court hearing on Tuesday, where his client Musayeva was sentenced to 5-and-a-half years in a penal colony.

Chechen officials disavowed any responsibility for the attack. Soltayev, the Chechen official in charge of human rights, called the assault an “audacious provocation against [Chechnya]”.

The Kremlin called it “a very serious attack” that required investigative actions and serious measures to be taken. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of the attack and the incident is being handled by Russia’s human rights ombudsman. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched an investigation into the attack.