Prominent Russian journalist Elena Milashina was violently attacked, along with attorney Alexander Nemov, while on their way to the court sentencing of a human rights activist in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital. Unknown assailants beat them, shaved off Milashina’s hair and doused her in blue-green liquid iodine. Milashina, who reports for the Novaya Gazeta and exposed Chechnya’s attacks on LGBTQ people, described the harrowing attack from the hospital where she was being treated.
Elena Milashina: “It was like a classic kidnap, like the ones they used to do. It just hasn’t happened in a long time. They came, threw the taxi driver out of the car. They got in, put my head down and tied my hands. They put me on my knees and a pistol to my head.”