Rights defenders treat attack on Milashina and Dubrovina as part of general campaign

An attack on Elena Milashina and Marina Dubrovina was related to their professional activities, notes human rights defender Oleg Kozlovsky, whose kidnapping in Magas has been under investigation for more than a year. Aggression against journalists and human rights defenders is a part of a campaign to force them out of Chechnya, believes Dmitry Piskunov, the head of the North-Caucasian branch of the "Committee Against Torture" (CaT).

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 6, Elena Milashina, a correspondent of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", and Krasnodar advocate Marina Dubrovina were attacked by a group of men and women in a hotel in Grozny.

Oleg Kozlovsky, an activist of the "Amnesty International" (AI), noted that the number of solved crimes related to attacks on human rights defenders and journalists in the Caucasus is "close to zero."

According to Oleg Kozlovsky, the practice of intimidation of journalists and human rights defenders exists not only in Northern Caucasus, "but in many places throughout Russia."

Dmitry Piskunov suggests that the attacks on Elena Milashina and Marina Dubrovina are on a par with detentions and attacks on activists of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" and the "Committee against Torture".