Milashina reports motives of attackers in Grozny

Journalist Elena Milashina associates an attack she and advocate Alexander Nemov suffered in Grozny with a case of missing Chechen policeman Yasin Khalidov. The attackers were interested in the information that Yasin Khalidov had managed to pass on to human rights defenders before his detention, Elena Milashina believes.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on July 28, Chechen investigators combined the criminal cases on the attack on Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov in Grozny into one and expanded the list of articles in the case, including obstruction of the victims’ professional activities.

Authors of the investigation into the attack on Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov came to the conclusion that the attackers were interested in the extent of the leakage of the information about the Chechen law enforcement bodies through 19-year-old policeman Yasin Khalidov. The young man was detained by border guards in the Omsk Region on May 20, handed over to Chechen law enforcers, and since then his whereabouts is not known.

Yasin Khalidov, a son of a Chechen law enforcer, who died at a young age, was employed by the law enforcement bodies in Chechnya at the age of 17.

In the autumn of 2022, Yasin Khalidov was sent to the Zaporozhye Region. Before his trip, the young man told his colleagues about his desire to resign from the law enforcement bodies and was beaten by them.

According to Elena Milashina, the main mistake of Yasin Khalidov was that he “addressed the wrong people for help”, i.e., Chechen bloggers.

Yasin Khalidov handed over the information about at least 65 residents of Chechnya, who were detained by the law enforcement bodies, but were not officially registered as detainees. “Yasin Khalidov told terrible details about what they did with those people,” the journalist points out.

Elena Milashina noted that in exchange for his revealing information, Yasin Khalidov did not receive the promised help from the Chechen bloggers.