Affiliated media: SOTA, Online media

Incident date: February 17, 2023

Attack type:

• Bullying, intimidation, pressure, threats of violence and death, including cyber-

Who attacked: Unknown sources

Source: SOTA

Location: Russia, Moscow, Moscow

Additional information:

The SOTA editorial office received threats after the media published the news that soldiers of Kadyrov’s Akhmat battalion were shooting dogs in the town of Stakhanov, Luhansk Region. The media published a surveillance video showing a man getting out of his car, firing several shots beyond the camera’s view, then putting the dead dog in the trunk of the car and driving away. According to a SOTA source, the man is one of the Akhmat soldiers. On February 17, a man named Akhmed, who he claims was captured in the video, wrote to the editorial board’s bot. He demanded that the video be deleted because since the morning he had been «being screwed by the people of Akhmed Dudayev, Minister of the Press of the Chechen Republic». In response to the refusal to remove the publication, he sent the editorial board a photo of dead dogs, telling journalists: «I will kill you too». He added that he knew Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephew Khamzat Kadyrov.