Milashina demands from Bastrykin to investigate attack on her

On February 18, Elena Milashina, an observer of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper, submitted an application to the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) with a demand to investigate the attack on her and the lawyer Marina Dubrovina, committed in Grozny.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 6, Elena Milashina and the Krasnodar lawyer Marina Dubrovina were attacked by a group of men and women in a Grozny hotel. The local police reported that they had started a check on the journalist's application, but ten days later Milashina complained that Chechen policemen even hadn't requested the videos records from the hotel surveillance cameras, which could help in identifying the attackers.

The attack on Milashina and Dubrovina should be investigated by the ICRF, not by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), because the incident had to do with the journalist's professional activities, the "Novaya Gazeta" quoted on February 18 on its website the Milashina's demand stated in her application addressed to Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the ICRF.

Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of the "Novaya Gazeta", has appealed to Tatiana Moskalkova, the Russian Ombudsperson, with a public request to hand the Milashina's application over personally to the ICRF head, the newspaper has noted.

According to Mr Muratov, there is no doubt that the attack on Elena Milashina was directly related to her work on covering the situation with human rights violations in the Chechen Republic.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 19, 2020 at 02:23 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.