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Assignment: The Chechen blogger on the run

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The Chechen blogger on the run

04/06/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Assignment, The Chechen blogger on the run

Who is behind the wave of assassinations and attacks on Chechen asylum seekers in Europe?

A Chechen blogger hiding in Sweden was recently attacked by a man with a hammer.  What is behind this and an apparent wave of revenge killings of Chechen dissidents in Europe?

In February this year, a Chechen blogger in hiding in Sweden was viciously assaulted by a man with a hammer as he slept. In the fight that followed, Tumso Abdurakhmanov managed to grab the hammer and defend himself, and filmed the aftermath of the attack and his interrogation of his assailant.

Tumso was the third Chechen to be attacked in Europe in just a few months; he was the only one to survive. All three men were critics and opponents of the pro-Moscow regime in Chechnya, an area in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus mountains where the authorities are accused of serious human rights abuses and violations. For Assignment, Nick Sturdee investigates who may have sent Tumso’s attacker, and explores the blogger’s relations with the Chechen government and leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

What are the parallels with another recent attack, in Berlin, where former Chechen fighter Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot dead? A case where the Bellingcat investigative team has identified the killer and revealed his close connections to the Russian Security Services, the FSB. 

Produced and presented by Nick Sturdee

(Image: Tumso Abdurakhmanov takes a selfie in Stockholm. Credit: Tumso Abdurakhmanov)

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