Natalia Estemirova
Natalia Estemirova was a prominent human rights activist in Russia, one who worked closely with issues related to the Russian wars in Chechnya. In today’s trying times, it is important to remember those who have sacrificed greatly in the name of transparency, equality, and accountability. The following will not do her life justice and is meant solely as an introduction to the life of a courageous, selfless human being.
Chechnya on a regional map
What happened on 5 February 2000 in the Novya Aldi suburb of Grozny will likely never fully be known. What is known, however, is that a group of Russian soldiers (mostly OMON police forces) came through town with more than a simple occupation on their minds. The first murder was a 50 year old man, his head blown off with a grenade launcher. And so the killing began. By the time it was over, between 60-82 civilians were dead. Among them, 82-year-old Rakat Akhmadova, gunned down alongside her neighbor 70-year-old Rizvan Umkhayev and her 66-year-old cousin, Gula Khaidayev. The young were not spared, either; 1-year-old Khassan Estamirov was killed with two gunshots to the head before being burned.
Alexander Litvinenko dying from acute polonium poisoning
No formal international investigation has ever occurred, and the primary driving force behind any light being shed on the incident was the light being shone by Estemirova, who was by then working with (among others) Human Rights Watch. Despite great risk to herself and repeated threats, Estemirova was committed to finding the truth and bringing those responsible for the killing to justice. Unfortunately, her quest for answers ran afoul of Vladimir Putin’s official story covering the incident. In that sense, she was a threat to Putin’s government. Putin dealt with her the same way he dealt with the likes of Alexander Litvinenko and Boris Nemtsov; he eliminated the threat.
At around 8:30 AM on 15 July 2009, Estemirova was seen by two witnesses being forced into a car, screaming that she was being abducted. Human Rights Watch demanded her release from either the Russian government or Putin’s strongman in Grozny (Ramzan Kadyrov). Her body was found at 4:30 PM that day with gunshot wounds to the head and the chest. Like the murder of Boris Nemtsov in 2015, nobody was really ever found in connection with the killing. Nobody was brought to justice, but there were plenty of promises of “massive investigations” from the Kremlin.
Grozny after the 2nd Chechen War
For their part, the Kremlin denies any connection to any of the aforementioned deaths, and insists that the massacre was carried out by Chechen soldiers in Russian federal military uniforms to stage a false flag. The Russian campaign in Chechnya, which went ignored by the international community, was marked by widespread violence in urban areas, with fuel-air bombs, bunker busters, and thermobaric rockets being deployed to the fight. Eventually, the war culminated in a Russian victory; Putin installed former Chechen rebel leader Akhmad Kadyrov as President of the Chechen Republic. Kadyrov, succeeded by his son Ramzan in 2004 after Akhmad’s assassination, ruled Chechnya with an iron fist, suppressing dissent brutally.
Abu Omar al-Shishani, the Chechen former commander of Daesh in Syria
Today Chechnya is a steady supplier of fighters to Daesh (the so-called Islamic State), including several high-level members. Inevitably as Daesh is squeezed out of Iraq and Syria, many of these now-veteran Chechen jihadists will return home. A resurgent insurgency in the Caucasus in the near-to-mid future is highly likely.
