Armenian authorities say they are investigating two unnamed people in connection with Aishat Baimuradova’s murder, but they have released no further details about them.<\/p>\n
Ramzan Kadyrov is sensitive to people criticising Chechnya from abroad, says Michael Dennis, an expert on Chechen politics at the University of Texas.<\/p>\n
“The very existence of a diaspora is a clear signal to the entire world that something is wrong in Chechnya. It’s a matter of personal pride and political image,” Mr Dennis told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Since the early 2000s, asylum seekers from Chechnya have been coming to Europe – fleeing first the war and later Kadyrov’s repressive rule.<\/p>\n
But changes to EU migration policy, followed by visa restrictions for Russians because of the war in Ukraine, have all but closed that route.<\/p>\n
That leaves the South Caucasus, where Russians can travel visa-free, as the easiest escape route, but far from the safest.<\/p>\n
In July, another escapee, 24-year-old Laura Avtorkhanova, was found in a shelter in Georgia by a group of male relatives who reportedly tried to coerce her into returning to Russia. After being questioned by police she was able to stay safely in Georgia.<\/p>\n
For other Chechen women who have fled, Aishat’s death has reinvigorated a fear that has haunted them since they left Russia.<\/p>\n
Several have told the BBC how even before her murder they had steered clear of community events, avoided speaking Chechen in public and restricted their social media presence. <\/p>\n
Now they worry it may not be enough to hide from those who may want to punish them.<\/p>\n
“The fear I’ve lived with all my life – embedded in my DNA – has reawakened with renewed vigour,” said one escapee living in Western Europe, who asked to hide her name and precise location.<\/p>\n
“It’s like sleep paralysis: a monster appears, and I lie there frozen, staring into its eyes. It’s the fear of being killed.”<\/p>\n
“You can escape,” she said, “but you never really feel free.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Armenian authorities say they are investigating two unnamed people in connection with Aishat Baimuradova’s murder, but they have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-278343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}