LIVE UPDATES:
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– Aurangzeb, Putin, Realism and a Lesson from History
– – Why the World Should Care About the Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
– How Boris Nemtsov Was Murdered: Investigation by Novaya Gazeta
– – How Stalin Returned to Russian Contemporary Life – Meduza
UPDATES BELOW
Following this evening’s attack on journalists and activists in Chechnya, a group of armed and masked men have entered offices in neighbouring Ingushetia of the group which organised the trip to Chechnya.
Dmitry Utukin, a lawyer for the Committee Against Torture (KPP), tweeted the following video tonight:
He reported that the building houses the headquarters of the Joint Mobile Group (SMG), a collective project of several human rights organisations working with the KPP.
Right now an attack is under way on the headquarters of the SMG in Karabulak (Ingushetia). We’re watching it unfold by surveillance cameras.
People in camouflage outfits with masks, armed with automatic weapons.
Armed men came in five cars to our apartment, one broke a CCTV camera in the stairwell. Three others climbed in through a window.
Those who are inside are trying to open my colleagues’ door. It’s made of metal, they’re trying to break it down.
All the cameras in the apartment have been disabled. We don’t know what is going on there now.
Meanwhile there is more news from a Swedish journalist who was amongst those attacked on the Chechen border:
Further details have become available about an attack today on a van in which 8 Russian and European journalists and human rights activists were traveling.
The names of the European reporters have been publicized.
Translation: List of journalists who were in the bus: Oeystein Windstad, Norway, Ny Tid, Lena Maria Persson Loefgren, Swedish Radio
Bus driver
Aleksandrina Elagina, a journalist from the New Times provided details of the attack on the road to Grozny, at the turn by the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya.
She said she and two others who were travelling in the van are at the police precinct and providing testimony. Another three were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
About 15 people set upon the van in which the journalists and activists were traveling in Ingushetia en route to Chechnya.
They beat us with clubs. They cut off our van and began to break the windows. Then they dragged us out of the vehicle, took our things, equipment, bags and set the vehicle on fire.
She said her leg was sprained when one of the attackers dragged her from the van.
Dmitry Utkin, a lawyer for the KPP, has posted a number of tweets about the attack.
Translation: Some left their passports in the burnt car, others their equipment. They took away phones from Ivan Zhiltsov and one other journalist.
Other journalists were apparently also traveling in the region and in touch with those attacked.
Translation: Guys I was lucky, I separated from the group along with Petya Ruzavin from TV Rain for a few hours before the attack. He is in one interview, I’m in another.
An activist on trial for supposedly “obstructing the media” today in a skirmish with LifeNews noted the contrast in how attacks on the media are handled in Russia:
Translation: In Chechnya, a van with journalists were attacked, they set the van on fire and beat the journalists. But it’s me they’re still prosecuting under Art. 144-3 [“obstruction of the work of journalists”]
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Cars with Chechen license plates had been following the activists’ car for the last two days. The KPP has been repeatedly attacked in the past; last year their office in Grozny was set on fire, and another time vandals broke their office equipment.
Murad Valiyev, Gadzhi Ramazanov, Sharip Khabibov, and Magomed Magomedov were among 9 people detained, 4 of whom have been released. They are charged under Art. 205-5, parts 1 and 2 for organizing a terrorist group and attempting the forcible seizure of government.
Ramazanov’s relatives claim that during a police search, extremist literature was planted.
But his father says he has no confirmation of his death and receives reports of his death nearly every month. Imam Omar Khagngoshvili, who lives in the Pankisi Gorge, says he also had not had any confirmation of his death, Rustavi-2 TV reported. Journalists typically ask local imams about deaths under the theory that they will know about funeral arrangements.
Caucasian Knot noted that al-Shishani has been reported to have been killed at least 7 times, including by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
The trial of Leonid Volkov, an activist in the opposition’s Parnas party, continued today on charges that he “obstructed the media” in a scuffle with a LifeNews reporter stalking him, MediaZone reported.
At today’s hearing, a pensioner who was holding a picket at the time of the scuffle gave testimony saying he didn’t recall exactly where Volkov had grabbed the microphone as a year had gone by.
Another witness spoke in defense of LifeNews. Yet another witness said he didn’t remember anything about the incident a year ago. But he did recall that the ultranationalist National Liberation Movement headed by Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov came to picket Parnas and “behaved very aggressively.” A woman threw eggs and struck opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who was also present. He said he tried to calm the NOD demonstrators and then senior police officials arrived to speak to them.
A senior policeman then testified that his precinct had created a working group to prevent unlawful actions during the elections, and a phone call had come in to report that an unauthorized demonstration was taking place. But he said he didn’t see the microphone being broken and filmed only people throwing eggs at Navalny.
At an earlier hearing, Yuliya Krepak, the NOD activist who filed charges against Volkov, said she had come to the Parnas office to attend a press conference, although Volkov reminded her it was in fact the next day. She said she disagreed with Navalny’s statement about the return of the Crimea, and that “Putin is a thief.”
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
The following headlines were taken from 7:40 na Perrone, Jerusalem Post, Interfax, 112.ua, RBC, Novaya Gazeta, RFE/RL, Kommersant, Vedomosti
American Tourist Killed, 2 Russian Tourists Wounded Among 10 Injured in Palestinian Terrorist Attack in Israel
Translation: Polozov: Savchenko has problems with her heart.
– Russian Foreign Ministry Complains US is Trying to “Pressure” Its Court in Savchenko’s Case
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick