UNREDDED JOURNALIST: Jelena Milasjina. Photo: Ole Kristian Strøm / VG
The award-winning Russian dig journalist was mistreated in the worst way, threatened with his life and had his shame cut. But Jelena Milasjina (45) refuses to be gagged.
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Jelena Milasjina (45), an award-winning Russian journalist, was mistreated, threatened with her life and shaved during a trip to Chechnya this summer. Milasjina believes Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, was behind the attack. He is supported by Vladimir Putin. Milasjina has worked as an investigative reporter in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which was closed down by the Putin regime. She does not allow herself to be stopped and says that she will continue to report on what is happening in Chechnya.
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Sea view
– The world’s bravest journalist, says Inna Sangadzhieva in the Helsinki Committee when she sticks her head in the door where VG is sitting with Milasjina.
The pictures show how she looked after her last trip to the Russian Republic of ChechnyaChechnyaChechnya is a Russian republic in the Caucasus Mountains. Chechnya is essentially a Muslim society. Chechnya has twice in the last 30 years been a war zone – in that Chechen rebels have fought against ordinary Russian forces. this summer. Masked men assaulted Milasjina and lawyer Alekandr Nemov.
In Chechnya, Vladimir Putin’s good friend Ramzan Kadyrov rulesRamzan KadyrovKadyrov has been the leader of Chechnya since 2007. His father, Ahmad Kadyrov, was the president of Chechnya until he was killed in an assassination attempt in 2004. Ramzan Kadyrov has the full support of Putin to rule Chechnya with hard hand. with a hard hand.
Putin and his regime have shut down Milasjina’s newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, but she continues to work as an investigative reporter. Her editor, Dmitry Muratov, received the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
– Who was behind your kidnapping?
– I’m pretty sure it was Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov. He is the only one capable of organizing and ordering something like that.
– Why is this happening?
– The authorities hate me for what I have done over many years – my articles in the newspaper.
– There was also special information they wanted from me and my colleague Aleksandr Nemov. We worked on things together, me as a journalist, him as a lawyer.
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BEATEN: Jelena Milasjina shows off her bruised back after she and a lawyer were kidnapped by masked men when they arrived in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / AP / NTBK BROKEN FINGERS: Jelena Milasjina had her fingers broken and her hair cut in shame in the encounter with the assailants in Chechnya. Photo: SERGEI BABINETS / AFP / NTB SURVIVOR: Jelena Milasjina says she quickly realized that the masked men did not want to kill them – just threaten them into releasing sensitive information. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / AP / NTB
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BEATEN: Jelena Milasjina shows off her bruised back after she and a lawyer were kidnapped by masked men when they arrived in Chechnya’s capital Grozny. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / AP / NTB
The two went to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, to cover the trial of Zarema Musayeva, a jailed Chechen woman accused of attacking a police officer.
– We had sensitive information for the Chechen authorities and Chechen police, because it raises many questions about terrorist attacks since 2014, 2015. That young Chechens were behind such attacks in Europe. Our information shows that Chechen police may have been behind such attacks in Western Europe, France, Germany – but also in Chechnya. So the attackers looked for this information.
– That’s why they beat us. To get this information.
– Did you see no risk in going to Chechnya at the time?
– No, not really. It came upon me very unexpectedly. We were only supposed to follow the last day of the trial against this woman. But I miscalculated…
– Were you afraid of dying?
– Three cars with masked men followed our taxi from the airport. They stopped us. They started beating us right away. They tortured us. It was a way to indicate that they weren’t going to kill us. Then they had driven us to a secret place further away.
– What were they looking for?
– They wanted the passwords to our mobile phones and PCs.
– They never got that?
– No! And it was a bit comical, because they thought I had a normal four-digit code. I had to tell them that a dig journalist had a far more complicated system, which I had to put in myself.
Milasjina thus uses “comic” about what happened when she was knocked unconscious, and it ended up with practically her entire body being blue, with broken fingers and head injuries.
– They threatened us with guns and knives. I have a scar from the knife, because they showed that they would cut off my fingers if I didn’t give them the passwords.
Jelena Milasjina together with the then First Lady Michelle Obama in 2013. The picture was taken in connection with the presentation of an award. On the right, then Secretary of State John Kerry. Photo: PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP / NTB
– Do you still have pain?
– It has been going quite well, but lately I have suddenly had severe pain again. I don’t know why and haven’t yet been to the doctor about it either.
– But I never started bleeding. It was just internal bleeding. And the doctor has told me that it might be even worse.
– They shaved your pubic hair?
– Yes, I was terrified when I noticed that there was something cold, metallic behind me. I thought maybe it was electric shock they wanted to use on me. And was relieved that they were “just” going to cut my pubic hair.
Jelena Milasjina has worked in Novaja Gazeta since 1997. She was in Norway to participate in the Helsinki Committee’s commemoration of her former colleague Anna Politkovskaja, who was killed in 2006. As Politkovskaja, she has written miles of critical articles about the Moscow regime in Novaja Gazeta.
– What do you think about the war now?
– I think it can last a long, long time.
– Are the Russian people to blame for the war?
– The Russian people have a responsibility, but I believe that there is only one man to blame; Putin is to blame.
– Why?
– Among other things, because the decision to go to war was taken by a small number of men around Putin. “Nobody”, even in the power apparatus, knew it was going to happen.
– Do you think presidential elections will be held in the spring of 2024?
– Yes, for Putin the election is important. Some, such as Ramzan Kadyrov, say that we don’t need elections, Putin can just continue. But for Putin himself, it is different. He wants to have proof that the Russian people really like him, although of course the election is not free, I would hardly call it an election …
– But for Putin it is important.
– Are you going to go back to Chechnya?
– Yes, it is important to report on what happens there. Not least now that Ramzan Kadyrov is seriously ill. Developments in Chechnya could be important for the whole of Russia. But next time I’ll probably go inside in secret.
Published:
Published: 22.10.23 at 04:19
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2023-10-22 02:19:10
#Kremlin #critic #looked #kidnapped #Jelena #refuses #gagged
