News

The Council of Russian Human Rights Defenders has treated the attack on Elena Milashina, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta" outlet, and Alexander Nemov, an advocate, committed in Chechnya, as an attempt to intimidate authorities' critics, and expressed solidarity with them.

The attack on the lawyer, Alexander Nemov, and the journalist, Elena Milashina, is being investigated under the articles on causing harm to health of medium and light gravity, the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has informed on the second day after the attack.

Advocate Alexander Nemov, who was injured in an attack in Chechnya on him and journalist Elena Milashina, is not able to walk, his colleagues report.

Journalist Elena Milashina and advocate Alexander Nemov, who were attacked in Chechnya, have not yet filed complaints to the police, the spokesperson for the “Team against Torture” (TaT)* reports. Even if an investigation is launched, the likelihood of punishing those responsible is low, lawyers predict.

Bulat Medjidov, a former operative agent of the police division in Makhachkala, has been arrested until August 21 within the case of abuse of power with the use of torture.

Relatives of eight residents of Dagestan killed in Chechnya in October 2016 have failed to achieve a revision of the criminal case at the Court of Appeal (CoA).

The attack on Elena Milashina and the lawyer Alexander Nemov was the latest in a series of attacks on journalists and threats addressed by Chechen authorities to media professionals.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has promised to look into the attack on journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov. At the same time, Akhmed Dudaev, the Chechen Press Minister, said that "the style of Western intelligence services" can be traced in the attack.

The attack on the journalist Elena Milashina and the advocate Alexander Nemov has to do with Milashina's publications in which she wrote about human rights violations in Chechnya, human rights defenders have noted.

Activist Tatiana Sporysheva, whose apartment was searched after Anatoly Berezikov had died in a special detention centre in Rostov-on-Don, left for Georgia. According to the activist, she made the decision to emigrate because of fears of criminal prosecution.

On the way from an airport to Grozny, a driver of a taxi, in which journalist Elena Milashina and advocate Alexander Nemov were traveling, was forced to stop by unidentified persons. Then the strangers tied Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov up, beat them, and put guns to their heads, Elena Milashina reported.

Unidentified armed men have kicked Alexander Nemov, a lawyer, and Elena Milashina, a journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta", who had arrived in Chechnya to cover the trial of Zarema Musaeva.

When speaking in court in a case on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, expert Natalia Kryukova failed to explain the base for her conclusions that Oleg Orlov was an anti-Russian human rights defender. The expert was also unable to substantiate the contradictions in the text of her conclusion.

A court in Grozny has sentenced Zarema Musaeva to 5.5 years of freedom deprivation after finding her guilty of assaulting a policeman.

In Makhachkala, colleagues of Abdulmumin Gadjiev, a journalist of the Dagestani weekly newspaper “Chernovik” (Rough Draft), held solo pickets with the demand to release him. The police wrote down their personal data and demanded an explanation.

The claim lodged by Shakir Ragimov to cancel the decision to mobilize him was not considered by the Kirovsky District Court of the Stavropol Territory. The Territorial Court has upheld the decision.

Rostov-on-Don after the revolt, Eid al-Adha, persecution of pacifists and activists in Southern Russia, natural disasters in the Caucasus, blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, and official data on the natives of Southern Russia who perished in Ukraine, – see the review of these and other events in the Caucasus during the week of June 26-July 2, 2023, prepared by the “Caucasian Knot”.

In social networks, Dagestani bloggers have criticized Khava Shaidullina, a psychologist from Kazan, who intended to hold a seminar in Makhachkala on women's rights in Islam. They explained their position by stating that Shaidullina's viewpoint fails to correspond to religious canons and can mislead residents of Dagestan.

The Military Court in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), has sentenced a military serviceman under contract to five years in jail after finding him guilty of leaving his military unit without permission.

The Russian Special Forces University located in the Chechen city Gudermes, which has become one of the training centres for fighters to participate in the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, is funded by Chechen businessman Movsadi Alviev, the "Important Stories"* have informed.