Yelena Milashina, who writes for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was travelling with a lawyer, Alexander Nemov, to the capital, Grozny, to attend the trial of the wife of a former Supreme Court judge. Their car was stopped by three cars carrying armed men.
"It was a classic kidnapping," Milashina said. "They immobilised us and then threw our driver out of his car. Then they climbed in to the car, bowed our heads, tied my hands, forced me to kneel down and put a gun to my head." Her employer said she had suffered a brain injury and had broken fingers. The attackers also shaved her head and sprayed her face with green dye.
Yelena Milashina fled Russia in February 2022 after Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, called her a terrorist and added that "we have always eliminated terrorists and their accomplices". In April 2020, Kadyrov threatened Milashina's life for reporting on human rights violations in Chechnya.
The Gender Council reiterates the urgency of ending attacks on women journalists and calls for the perpetrators to be held to account for their actions. "Threats and attacks on media professionals must never go unpunished", the Council said.