The relatives of 23-year-old Aishat Baymuradova, a native of Chechnya who was found dead in Yerevan, told the Russian state news agency IA Regnum that they had no involvement in her disappearance or death.
In a comment to the agency, the victim’s uncle said: ‘Of course, the family has nothing to do with what happened. We ourselves only found out about her disappearance from social media two days ago’.
Baymuradova was found dead on 19 October in a rented flat on Demirchyan Street in Yerevan. A few days earlier, on 15 October, she had gone out for a walk and did not return.
According to human rights defenders, shortly before her disappearance, she met with a woman she had gotten to know through Instagram. They suggested that Baymuradova’s family might have been involved in her disappearance and death, as Baymuradova had moved to Armenia to escape domestic violence.
The human rights group NC SOS reported that the woman Baymuradova had met with before her death had followers connected to the entourage of Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov. According to their information, the woman’s name is Karina Iminova. She told acquaintances that she was from Daghestan, but it later emerged that she was born in Kyrgyzstan and had no connection to Daghestan. However, traffic fine records suggest that she had visited Chechnya.
Iminova also communicated with other Chechen emigrants and invited them to meetings. According to unverified reports, Iminova has already left Armenia. She stopped answering messages immediately after Baymuradova’s disappearance and later deleted her WhatsApp account.
Iminova’s Instagram account was followed by Rubati Mitsaeva, a former associate of Ichkeria’s (Chechnya's self-designation during the years of independence) exiled prime minister Akhmed Zakaev, who returned from Europe to Chechnya in 2021 and pledged allegiance to Kadyrov. Before that, Mitsaeva had also sent her two daughters back to the republic.
Meanwhile, Chechnya’s human rights commissioner Mansur Soltaev accused human rights organisations of being responsible for Baymuradova’s death.
‘According to the information available to us, all traces of these incidents may lead directly to crisis centres that are actively operating in the North Caucasus and throughout Russia. Psychologists from these organisations deliberately work in the North Caucasus, manipulating women — especially those who are psychologically vulnerable and weak. They promise them “golden opportunities” in the West and take them abroad under various pretexts’, Soltaev said.
He also claimed that the goal of these human rights groups was to ‘create the illusion of widespread domestic violence in the North Caucasus’. The commissioner stated that NGOs ‘discredit spiritual and family values’ and ‘undermine traditional foundations of society in the Caucasus’.
Human rights organisations have described Soltaev’s statements as ‘false accusations’ against NC SOS, Marem, and other groups that provide assistance to women in the North Caucasus.
Yousef Bardouka
