Russian journalist back in Moscow after Chechnya attack

Award-winning Russian journalist Elena Milashina, who was beaten by unknown armed attackers in Chechnya, was flown out to a Moscow hospital on Tuesday night. 

Russian Nobel peace laureate and journalist Dmitry Muratov, who helped with the transfer, said that she is in a "difficult" condition.

"Milashina is in Moscow in hospital. Her condition is, frankly, difficult: she was really severely beaten, beaten with a stick," Muratov, the editor of her paper, Novaya Gazeta, said. 

"Her condition is what you'd expect," he added.

Photos released on Telegram showed injured Milashina along with lawyer Alexander Nemov, who was also attacked, in a small plane together.

What the Kremlin has said about the attack on Elena Milashina

Milashina works for top independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which lost its license in Russia, and Nemov is a lawyer with the human rights group Crew Against Torture.

The Kremlin said that the person responsible for the attack should be identified. 

President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson on Wednesday said that it would take more time for a full probe to be conducted, adding that investigators were carrying out their work. 

 "Let's just wait. The reactions have all been voiced and now all actions are being taken," Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

What happened in the attack?

Milashina and Nemov were brutally beaten up while they were on their way to attend a court verdict in the Chechen capital Grozny on Tuesday.

Several cars blocked their vehicle as it left the airport, then masked assailants physically attacked them and broke their equipment. Both were subsequently hospitalized in Grozny, and later taken to Beslan.

A spokesperson for Crew Against Torture told DW that Milashina and Nemov were "beaten and very seriously injured."

"Elena Milashina's head was shaved and covered in green dye. She was kicked in the face and slips in and out of consciousness," Natalia Kurekina told DW. "Several fingers are broken on both hands."

Nemov, meanwhile, received a deep cut to his leg. "He finds it hard to walk, but is improving. But Elena Milashina is in a very bad way," she added.

Crew Against Torture shared photos of Milashina in a hospital with her hands in bandages.

Milashina was the target of a similar attack at a hotel in Grozny in 2020 and has received death threats for her reporting on Chechnya.

ara/jcg (AFP, dpa)