“Brutal attack” on an investigative journalist and a lawyer on their way to report on a trial in Chechnya

Elena Milashina, Novaya Gazeta journalist, after treatment in Grozny after the terrorist attack. Photo: Novaya Gazeta Europe/AP

A A well-known journalist and lawyer were seriously injured when they were attacked by masked men on Tuesday while trying to enter Chechnya.

Elena Milashina, best known who told the story of a deadly purge of gays in the republic in 2017, broke her fingers and received other injuries as a result of an incident that occurred when she was driving with a court report.

Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov were driving to Chechnya from another North Caucasian region of Russia when they were stopped by men in balaclavas early on Tuesday morning.

One of the few investigative journalists not to have fled Russia following the Kremlin's crackdown on media following last year's invasion, Milashina was doused in bright green paint and had her hair shaved off.

Pictured in a hospital in Grozny with a bandaged hand, Ms. Milashina told a visiting Chechen official that it was a “classic kidnapping.”

“They threw the driver out of the car, grabbed us, took us out, put us on our knees and put a gun to our heads,” she said.

Russian journalist Yelena Milashina (right) and lawyer Alexander Nemov (left), who were injured in the attack, talk to the human rights ombudsman in Chechnya Republic by Mansur Soltaev (center) Photo: Shutterstock

Sergey Babinets, a human rights activist who saw them in the hospital on Tuesday, said the attackers beat and kicked the couple and «continued to remember their work, all the court cases and trials they attended and covered earlier.

“Nemov is in a wheelchair, he hardly moves. Elena Milashina can't even sit down. Both were severely beaten by men in black balaclavas who threatened them with firearms,” he said. “This is clearly not a criminal attack: this is retribution for their work.”

Ms Milashina’s Novaya Gazeta publication, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, says that the attackers took the phones on Tuesday their victims and tried to force them to unlock their devices.

After Ms Milashina reportedly refused to cooperate, her attackers broke her fingers.

The journalist lost consciousness several times and suffered an unspecified head injury, the newspaper said.

«Terrified from a brutal attack»

Reporters Without On Tuesday, Borders said it was «terrified of the brutal attack.»

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader who is accused of leading terror in the region, including extrajudicial executions and torture, has previously accused Ms Milashina of being a “terrorist accomplice” for shedding light on human rights abuses in his republic .

Journalists and human rights activists have been forced out of Chechnya after a spate of unsolved murders and attacks. Mr. Kadyrov denies involvement in the widespread violence in the republic.

Chechen authorities, who verbally harassed Ms. Milashina and her colleagues, insist they had nothing to do with the attacks, but the region and his security forces are tightly controlled by Mr. Kadyrov and members of his family.

Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Tuesday denounced the incident as «a very serious attack requiring swift action.»

Several hours later, the head of Russia's top investigative agency said he had personally ordered a high-level investigation into the attack.

Earlier Tuesday, three prominent pro-Kremlin politicians and a well-known TV host called for a thorough investigation, a reaction that surprised some Kremlin watchers.