Yelena Milashina at the hospital after the attack. Photo: Anna Artemyeva / Novaya Gazeta

The authorities in the Russian republic Chechnya have suspended an investigation into a brutal attack on Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov in the Chechen capital Grozny in July 2023, news outlet NewsNN reported on Friday.

A statement issued by the Chechen Investigative Committee in December said that the preliminary investigation into the attack had been suspended as it had been unable to identify any suspects.

Milashina and Nemov were attacked in Grozny on 4 July 2023 while on their way to a court hearing for Zarema Musaeva, the mother of two outspoken critics of Chechnya’s Kremlin-installed head Ramzan Kadyrov who now live in exile. Musaeva was abducted by Chechen law enforcement officers in January 2022 and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison on trumped up charges.

Masked men forced the car Milashina and Nemov were travelling in to stop as they drove from the airport into Grozny, after which they savagely beat them both with batons and held guns to their heads. Their assailants also demanded they unlock their phones, and destroyed the equipment and documents they were carrying.

Milashina suffered a closed head injury and multiple finger fractures in the attack, and photos taken at the hospital showed her back covered in bruises from the beatings. Nemov was treated for a stab wound.

In late July, Chechen investigators opened several criminal cases into the attack, including one for the “obstruction of professional journalistic activity”, which Novaya Gazeta said at the time “set a precedent”, as it established that investigators accepted that Nemov and Milashina had been attacked for their work in Chechnya.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov assured reporters in July 2023 that an investigation would be carried out into the attack, which he called “very serious”, while Ramzan Kadyrov vowed to “make every effort” to identify the attackers.

“I think it’s clear that they weren’t really looking for anyone,” Nemov told NewsNN on Friday. “But we need to fly there and get acquainted with the case materials and make public what has been done to actually find the perpetrators.”