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Russia adds 2 suspects in killing of Chechen woman to federal wanted list

Russia’s Interior Ministry has added Karina Iminova and Said-Khamzat Baisarov to its federal wanted database, the SK SOS Crisis Group, a human rights organization, reported. Both are suspected of involvement in the killing of Aishat Baimuradova, a woman from Chechnya.

The database lists Iminova and Baisarov as wanted on a criminal charge, though the ministry has not specified which one.

Iminova is also listed as a missing person. Human rights activists said this may indicate that friends or relatives are searching for her and have filed a corresponding request with authorities.

Iminova’s entry lists two ethnicities — Lak and Kyrgyz — while no such information appears for Baisarov, who is from Chechnya.

The ministry has not specified when the two were placed on the wanted list.

Aishat Baimuradova, a 23-year-old woman from Chechnya who had fled her family, went missing in Yerevan on October 15, 2025. She had gone to meet a woman she knew from social media, Karina Iminova, and never returned. Her body was found several days later.

Iminova was captured on surveillance cameras at the building where Baimuradova was killed. Human rights activists and journalists say she was accompanied at the time by Said-Khamzat Baisarov, described as a nephew of businessman Ruslan Baisarov — the father of singer Kristina Orbakaite’s younger son and a friend of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Investigators consider Iminova and Baisarov suspects in Baimuradova’s murder. Armenia issued an arrest warrant for them in November 2025. The suspects are believed to have acted on the orders of a person who has not yet been identified.

Human rights activists and friends were only able to bury Baimuradova in March 2026. In the five months following her murder, none of her relatives came to claim her body.

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