At her picket, friend of Suleimanova, who went missing in Chechnya, claims investigators’ inaction

At her solo picket held in Saint Petersburg, Elena Patyaeva has stated that within 10 months the inquiry into the disappearance of her friend, Seda Suleimanova, had yielded no results.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Patyaeva had complained to the Russian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) about the investigators’ inaction in Chechnya in the case of Suleimanova's disappearance.

In April 2024, it became known that the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) was investigating Suleimanova's disappearance under the murder article. Last June, Patyaeva said that within the three months since the case was opened, investigators failed to come to any conclusions.

"Seda was not found either alive or dead; no proofs were presented that she was alive or, conversely, that a murder had been committed ... None of her relatives or policemen were punished," Elena Patyaeva has noted.

She has explained why she chose the Kadyrov Bridge as the place for her picket. "I no longer see any sense in picketing at official buildings in Saint Petersburg. I went out with a picket to the GPO building, and I was detained there; and there was no reaction from them. The same with the ICRF ... I chose the Kadyrov Bridge because it is, in some sense, a symbolic place that is important to many townspeople," she said, adding that "public pressure on the authorities still matters."

Let us remind you that in August 2024, Patyaeva demanded from the ICRF to initiate a criminal case against the law enforcers who had detained Seda Suleimanova. These law enforcers allowed Seda to be sent to Chechnya despite her words about the threat of repressions, Patyaeva has added. However, her appeal was forwarded to Chechnya. In the opinion of human rights defenders, the result of forwarding Patyaeva's complaint to Chechnya could be a formal reply or an imitation of an inquiry.