Elena Patyaeva—a friend of Seda Suleymanova, who disappeared three years ago after being forcibly returned from St. Petersburg to Chechnya—was detained in Grozny. On August 23, Patyaeva stood by the monument to journalists who died for freedom of speech, holding a sign that read: "I demand an investigation into the murder of Seda Suleymanova." This was reported by the human rights project "Slovo Zashchite" (Word for the Defense).
On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist, was killed in the elevator of her house in Moscow. She was known for her materials on the second Russian-Chechen war, writing about murders, torture and abductions in the North Caucasus.
Politkovskaya conducted investigations into corruption in the Ministry of Defense and the command of the United Group of Federal Forces in Chechnya. Since 2003, she has accused the Chechen leadership of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes. Anna Politkovskaya harshly criticized the Russian authorities and President Vladimir Putin.
In 2014, two defendants in the case of the murder of a human rights activist - brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov - were found guilty of complicity in the crime. They were sentenced to 12 and 14 years in a maximum security colony, respectively.