Unidentified individuals have reportedly attempted to abduct 21-year-old Chechen native Aishat Khizrieva in Novosibirsk after she had fled domestic abuse in Chechnya. Her kidnappers appeared to identify themselves as police officers.
According to human rights groups NC SOS Crisis Group and Marem, the incident occurred almost immediately after Khizrieva left Chechnya.
After her plane landed in Novosibirsk and she was met by friends, their car was surrounded by a group of men whom Khizrieva believed to be Chechens presenting themselves as police officers. They claimed that the woman was suspected of theft, while her companions were allegedly involved in her ‘abduction’. They also contacted her father, from whom she had previously fled.
‘They claim that I stole ₽4 million ($53,000), that I am mentally unstable, and that my friends want to sell me into slavery,’ Khizrieva said in a video.
Khizrieva refused to go with the men who identified themselves as police officers and called the police herself. She said she would remain at the scene until real law enforcement officers arrived. According to human rights activists, the men then left the scene. They left their contact details with a taxi driver and asked him to inform them where Khizrieva would be taken.
‘He threatens me, saying that wherever I go, he’ll find me. This man served time for murder’, Khizrieva said of her father.
After police officers arrived, Khizrieva went with them to a police station where officers questioned her and established that she was not on any wanted list. After she reported being followed, she was told that they ‘could not help’, but she was offered the option of filing a complaint. She was then released.
Marem and NC SOS have emphasised that she is still in danger, however.
‘Aishat asked that her story be made public and that she not be returned to her father, where she could face mortal danger,’ NC SOS said in a statement on Telegram.
Human rights organisations note that such cases occur regularly. According to them, Chechen women who try to leave the region due to domestic violence or forced marriages often face abduction or coercion by relatives. Such attempts, they say, may involve threats and violence.
In October 2025, Chechen native Aishat Baimuradova was killed in Yerevan. She had fled to Armenia after prolonged domestic violence. The suspects have not yet been caught.
In February 2026, Georgia’s Prosecutor’s Office opened an official investigation into the circumstances surrounding the removal of Chechen-born Aliya Ozdamirova from Georgian territory to Russia and her subsequent death.
Chechen native Seda Suleymanova fled Chechnya in 2022, stating that she did not want to enter a forced marriage. She lived and worked in Saint Petersburg where, in August 2023, she was detained by police on suspicion of theft following a complaint filed by her mother. She was then handed over to relatives, after which her whereabouts became unknown. In April 2024, a criminal case was officially opened into her disappearance and possible killing.
Elizaveta Chukharova
