Photo: Chebykin Obyasnit
The body of Aishat Baymuradova, a Chechen woman who went missing last week in Yerevan, has been found by Armenian police. Her murder, which presumably took place on the night of Oct. 15–16, was the result of strangulation, the independent outlet Agentstvo reports. Agentstvo cited information provided by Lydia Mikhalchenko, founder of the human rights project “Caucasus Without a Mother.”
According to Mikhalchenko, the alleged killers were captured on surveillance cameras, but have already left for Russia. One of the two suspects, a woman, is described by the human rights activist as the “spotter.”
Earlier, Baymuradova’s acquaintances told The Insider that her body was found in the apartment of a woman with whom the deceased had met the day before.
“She went out with a female friend — as far as I understand, it was a setup. She had met a Chechen woman on Instagram, and that woman invited her to meet offline. After that, she never made contact again.”
Among the unidentified woman’s Instagram followers were figures close to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. As Pussy Riot member Lusya Shtein writes on X, one of them was Rubati Mitsaeva. Mitsaeva, a former advocate for a free and independent Ichkeria, has run an Instagram page that has posted near-daily pro-Kadyrov content since her return to Chechnya.
The late Aishat Baymuradova left Chechnya with the help of a human rights organization that assists women from the North Caucasus. The specific reasons for her departure have not been disclosed, but most often women flee the republic to escape domestic violence, threats of “honor killings,” or persecution for alleged LGBTQ+ identity. According to human rights activists, such women often face danger even outside Russia if their whereabouts become known to relatives or representatives of the Chechen authorities.