Moscow: Prominent investigative journalist Yelena Milashina has been badly beaten by masked men moments after flying in to the Russian republic of Chechnya.
She described being forced out of a car, hit with plastic pipes and having her head shaved and doused in green dye not far from the airport.
Ms Milashina has received death threats in the past from Chechnya’s notorious leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.
She was travelling with lawyer Alexander Nemov, who was also wounded.
They had just arrived at Grozny airport to attend a court verdict for a mother of three exiled Kadyrov critics. But they were unable to make the hearing, where Zarema Musayeva was given a five-and-a-half-year jail term on charges condemned as politically motivated.
Chechnya has been run by Ramzan Kadyrov since 2007. A staunch ally of Vladimir Putin and a cheerleader for the war in Ukraine, he has been widely accused of ordering extrajudicial killings, abductions and torture at home.
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