"Novaya Gazeta" claims a chemical attack after posting article on reprisals in Chechnya

An entrance to the building, which houses the editorial office of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", which has posted today an eyewitness evidence of the extrajudicial executions in Chechnya, has been poured with a chemical liquid of pungent smell, the newspaper reports. No hazardous substances have been discovered in the building, a source from the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today, the "Novaya Gazeta" has made public the second part of the investigation into the extrajudicial executions in Chechnya, including a testimony of Chechen law enforcer Suleiman Gezmakhmaev. According to his story, residents of Chechnya, detained in January 2017, were tortured and forced to incriminate themselves before the extrajudicial killings, and the law enforcer witnessed those events.

The entrance to the building, in which the editorial office of the "Novaya Gazeta" is located, has been "subjected to a chemical attack," the newspaper reports on its website today. It is reported that the entrance has been "poured with a chemical liquid of pungent smell."

Gas analyzers did not detect a single hazardous substance on the premises of the editorial office of the "Novaya Gazeta", a source from the MfE reports.

The "Novaya Gazeta" has not specified whether the editorial board associates the chemical attack with the release of the Suleiman Gezmakhmaev's evidence. However, in April 2017, after the newspaper's posts about the persecution of gays in Chechnya, the editorial board of the "Novaya Gazeta" complained that its correspondent got threats.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 15, 2021 at 03:55 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.