Human rights activist Valery Borshchev has passed away.

Human rights activist Valery Borshchev, who worked in the war zone during the First Chechen War, has died at the age of 81.

A member of the Moscow Helsinki Group**, human rights activist, and journalist, Valery Borshchev, commented in 2023 to the "Caucasian Knot" on the practice of controlling women in Chechnya, specifically the refusal to issue passports to female residents of the republic without a family member's guarantor.

Journalist Eva Merkacheva reported the death of Valery Borshchev at the age of 81. "He struggled with a painful illness for a long time. He was bedridden for the last year. But he was active. He called. He tried to help various people in trouble," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Since December 1994, Borshchev was part of the "Sergey Kovalev Group," which operated directly in the Chechen war zone. He led children and women out of the fighting under a white flag, according to MHG publications*.

In June 1995, during the seizure of a hospital in Budyonnovsk by Shamil Basayev's militants, Borshchev participated in negotiations and subsequently offered himself as a voluntary hostage. "At headquarters, hostages who had left with the militants were asked to sign a receipt declaring that they were voluntarily joining Basayev's group and leaving with them for Chechnya. According to Deputy Rybakov, this was the authorities' way of absolving themselves of responsibility for the destruction of the convoy carrying militants and hostages," according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Terrorist Attack in Budyonnovsk."

Borshchev was the author of the law on public oversight, thanks to which the institution of public monitoring commissions (PMC) emerged in Russia, noted Shamil Khadulaev, head of the Dagestan PMC, on his Telegram channel.

* In January 2023, a Moscow court upheld the Justice Ministry's claim to liquidate the Moscow Helsinki Group.

** Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.