Human Rights Centre 'Memorial' on the murder of Natalya Estemirova

'Today, our friend and colleague, a person close to us, was killed. For almost ten years, Natasha was a leading employee of 'Memorial' in the North Caucasus, primarily in Chechnya. She not only collected information about human rights violations. She was a human rights defender with a capital letter, a defender of the people.

Chechnya residents became victims of bombings, 'cleansing operations', abductions, and torture – Natasha tried to help them all. She demanded the impossible from the authorities – to stop the lawlessness. Sometimes she succeeded – the confidence in her rightness and in the power of the law gave her strength. This work made Natasha known throughout Chechnya; people reached out to her, hoping for protection, or at least that the lawlessness would not remain a secret.

Natasha was threatened more than once by officials of all ranks, but she did not see herself working anywhere other than her homeland, in Chechnya.'

In particular, the statement cites the words of the Chairman of the Council of the HRC 'Memorial' Oleg Orlov: 'Ramzan Kadyrov has already threatened Natalya, insulted her, and considered her his personal enemy. We do not know whether he gave the order himself or if his closest associates did it to please their superiors.'

'We know that the last of the reports prepared by Natasha about new abductions, extrajudicial executions, and a public shooting in the middle of one of the Chechen villages caused indignation among the Chechen leadership. The so-called Commissioner for Human Rights of Chechnya, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, spoke about this to the head of our Grozny office. He stated that he did not want anything to happen, and therefore would scold the human rights defenders.

We took a risk that turned out to be unjustified. We are very much to blame.

Let us call everything by its proper name. State terror is taking place in Russia. We know about the murders in Chechnya and outside Chechnya. They kill those who try to tell the truth, to criticise the authorities. Ramzan Kadyrov has made the work of human rights defenders in the republic impossible. Those who killed Natasha Estemirova wanted to stop the flow of truthful information from Chechnya.

Perhaps they succeeded.'