- Date
- 30/03/1996
- First
- Nadezhda
- Surname
- CHAIKOVA
- Sex/Age
- F, 33
- Incident
- homicide
- Motive
- J
- Place
- village
- Job
- journalist
- Medium
- Federal District Plus
- Chechnya
- Street, Town, Region
- Gekhi, Chechnya
- Freelance
- no
- Local/National
- national, Obshchaya gazeta
- Other Ties
- Arabist
- Cause of Death
- shot, execution
- Legal Qualification
- 103 (murder)
- Impunity
- investigation
Nadezhda Chaikova, correspondent with the Obshchaya gazeta weekly, was killed on 30 March 1996 and then dumped near Gekhi, a Chechen village 20 kms south-west of Grozny. The locals buried her in their cemetery and two weeks later her body was exhumed. Forensic examination showed she was struck across the face, blindfolded and shot in the head. It is assumed that she was murdered on 30 March and her body was then concealed in Gekhi.
Nadezhda Chaikova graduated from Moscow University as a historian and Oriental specialist. She became an editor with Radio Russia. In December 1994 she was sent to Grozny because no one else was available at the time. Over the next 15 months she made repeated trips to Chechnya. Good relations with Chechen separatist leaders led to pressure, she later claimed, to cooperate with RF security services when she worked with Itar TASS and RIA Novosti. From October 1995 she was a commentator for Obshchaya gazeta weekly.
Her last trip to Chechnya began on 6 March 1996 to report from Grozny, then again in hands of Dudayev supporters. She was seen on 20 March by other journalists in Samashki, which was surrounded by federal forces. Local investigators in Urus-Martan opened an investigation into her killing but the documentation and evidence was moved, first to Grozny and then to Vladikavkaz, and progress halted. An unprecedented FSB commission concluded that there had been no attempts to recruit her but suggested that she was accused of working with special services and shot by Chechen fighters.