According to her newspaper and a rights group, an acclaimed Russian investigative journalist has been hospitalized following a severe assault by armed attackers while visiting Chechnya.

An award-winning Russian investigative journalist is in hospital after being badly beaten by armed assailants during a trip to Chechnya, her newspaper and a rights group said.

The attack happened early on Tuesday as well-known journalist Elena Milashina and Alexander Nemov, a lawyer, were travelling from the airport.

Investigative journalist Elena Milashina (C) of Russia poses for photographs with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and U.S. first lady Michelle Obama after receiving the International Women of Courage award at the State Department March 8, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, published a video of Milashina in hospital with her head shaven and covered in a green-coloured dye, used to target Kremlin critics, and her hands bandaged.

She said the attack, which included having a gun held to her head, was linked to her “professional activity in Chechnya.”

Milashina has covered rights abuses in Chechnya, the Caucasus republic ruled by former warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, for years.

She came to Grozny on Tuesday to attend the sentencing of Zarema Musayeva, whose husband and sons have fallen foul of the Kadyrov regime, but did not make it there.

Musayeva later was handed 5-and-a-half years on fraud charges widely seen as political revenge against her family.

Milashina recounted the attack in a video shared by Novaya Gazeta: “They came, they threw out the driver, the taxi driver from the car. They jumped in, pushed our heads down, they tied my hands, put us on our knees with a gun to the head,” she said.

The Memorial human rights group said the pair were “savagely” beaten.

Eight journalists working with Novaya Gazeta were murdered in Russia. The Editor-in-chief, Dmitri Muratov, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

She said she was taken to neighboring Ossetia for safety and the newspaper said she will go back to Moscow once a medical team examines her.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a briefing that President Vladimir Putin had been informed.

Kadyrov, who has been accused of persistent rights abuses in his restive region, said in a statement online he had instructed officials to determine who was behind the attack.

Milashina’s paper Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s top independent publication, said she and Nemov were in hospital in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Novaya Gazeta in February last year said that Milashina had to leave Russia temporarily after receiving death threats from the Chechen leadership.

Khalil Wakim, with AFP