Attackers break Russian journalist’s fingers and stab human rights lawyer in Chechnya

Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov were on their way to the sentencing of a human rights activist in Grozny when they were assaulted

Assailants have carried out a brutal attack on a human rights lawyer and a prominent Russian journalist in Chechnya, leaving them with stab wounds, broken fingers and head wounds.

The brazen assault on journalist Elena Milashina and lawyer Alexander Nemov in Grozny, Chechnya's capital, was the most vicious in recent memory, leading even to a rare rebuke from the Kremlin which called it a very serious attack that requires rather energetic measures." Similar attacks in Chechnya, however, have gone unpunished for years.