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).
In St. Petersburg, law enforcement officers detained a man who went out to the City Duma building on Nevsky Prospekt with a poster "Freedom to Zarema Musayeva." It is reported by "OVD-Info".
The picketer is a local resident, Dmitry Kuzmin. The security forces took him to the department, where they drew up a protocol under the administrative article on anti-COVID restrictions and then released him. The maximum fine for such a violation is 4000 rubles.
Zarema Musaeva is the mother of the Chechen oppositionists Abubakar, Ibragim and Baisangur Yangulbaev. In January last year, she was kidnapped by security forces from an apartment in Nizhny Novgorod and taken to Grozny. Later, a criminal case was opened against her under the article on the use of violence against a police officer and she was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
We also recall that on July 4, Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina and Musayeva's lawyer Alexander Nemov, who were on their way to sentencing Zarema Musayeva, were attacked. They were beaten by armed men in balaclavas.