This was Russia today Thursday, October 23, 2025

Howdy, folks. Don’t miss today’s news digest. In the missive below, we spoke to a journalist who got to know Aishat Baymuradova before her murder in Armenia last week. Let us know if you’re enjoying the newsletter’s new format, why don’t you.

Aishat Baymuradova ran her Instagram account like nothing scared her. It may have gotten her killed.

Last week, Aishat Baymuradova was found dead in Yerevan after meeting up with a woman she’d gotten to know on Instagram. At 23, she had fled to Armenia to escape an abusive family in Chechnya. Activists report that her mysterious Instagram acquaintance has social media connections to Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov’s people, leading to speculation that Baymuradova was the regime’s latest “honor killing.” Lidiya Mikhalchenko, the founder of the Caucasus Without Mothers project, told Meduza that she suspects Baymuradova was strangled. She also claims that the killers were likely caught on surveillance cameras and are now safely back in Russia.

Mikhalchenko admits that she didn’t know Baymuradova well, but the young woman nevertheless made a strong impression during their brief correspondence. Baymuradova contacted her this summer and offered to help Caucasus Without Mothers. She even asked specifically about Maria Smelaya, a woman in Krasnodar Krai who’s publicly challenged her Chechen husband over domestic violence and child abduction. Mikhalchenko recalls: “Aishat said that every woman and child should be taken out of Chechnya. She believed the boy had probably been taken back there, since his father is Chechen.”

Baymuradova’s unusual directness made Mikhalchenko suspicious, but subsequent vetting and further conversations corroborated her story. Baymuradova had fled to Armenia and was now working as a house cleaner. That was fairly typical for women escaping abuse in Chechnya, but Baymuradova stood out for her defiantly public presence on social media. In other words, she practiced poor “information hygiene.” Baymuradova posted numerous photographs showing her life as an emancipated woman, which triggered countless hate messages in both Russian and Chechen. She was eager to be interviewed about her experiences, but Mikhalchenko worried that the visibility would put her at risk.

“Aishat’s murder was meant to send a message,” Mikhalchenko told Meduza. “Nobody even tried to cover their tracks. It’s a message to women who run: if we can’t drag you back to Chechnya, we’ll find you anywhere.” Mikhalchenko isn’t sure how Baymuradova’s killers found her, but she’s sure that “Kadyrov’s men were hunting her.”

On October 20, Lucy Shtein — an activist who helps LGBTQ people flee violence in Russia’s North Caucasus — retweeted a post she’d written three weeks earlier. In it, she warned that “Kadyrov’s thugs” operate all over the world, meting out their version of justice to the so-called “infidels” who supposedly shame the Chechen people.

Even without the resources available to the Kadyrov regime, Russia’s national “data-access systems” are essentially at the disposal of “all rapists, abusers, and kitchen-boxers,” says Mikhalchenko. In other words, the police are perfectly willing to share surveillance footage and travel records that make it easy to track a fleeing woman’s movements. Women who leave Russia for somewhere like Armenia, which Russians can visit without an international travel passport, haven’t really disappeared from abusers’ radars until they reach a third country, says Mikhalchenko.

Today, the Caucasus Without Mothers project receives anonymous messages from people bragging about Baymuradova’s murder. The messages also gloat about the suspected “honor killing” of Seda Suleimanova, another Chechen woman who tried to flee to safety but was dragged back. “Whenever a woman manages to get out, or another case draws some attention, the threats come in waves. And this time, with Kadyrov’s men involved, the campaign has turned even more vicious,” Mikhalchenko told Meduza.

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Today’s reporting from Meduza

🛂 How Putin’s forced passportization campaign deprives Ukrainians living under occupation of medical care and other vital services

This report examines how Russia’s “passportization” policy forces Ukrainians in occupied territories to accept Russian citizenship to access basic services like healthcare and pensions. It shows how refusal can mean losing medical care, jobs, or even the ability to move freely, effectively coercing compliance.

🇱🇹 Russian military planes violated Lithuania’s airspace, president says

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda announced that two Russian military aircraft entered Lithuania’s airspace, prompting a diplomatic protest. He called the incursion a deliberate provocation and urged NATO to respond with heightened vigilance along the alliance’s eastern flank.

🚨 Russia’s ‘terrorists and extremists’ list is now sweeping up journalists and academics. Soon, Navalny donors could face life in prison.

This explainer describes the rapid expansion of Russia’s “terrorists and extremists” registry, which now targets scholars, reporters, and ordinary citizens linked to opposition figures. It warns that proposed amendments could make donating to Alexey Navalny’s organizations punishable by life imprisonment.

🛢️ Lukoil and Rosneft account for half of Russia’s oil exports. Now both are under U.S. sanctions.

The article analyzes new U.S. sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft, which together account for roughly half of Russia’s oil exports. It highlights how Donald Trump’s administration framed the move as a decisive step to limit Moscow’s revenue, though experts note potential global market disruptions.

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