STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT. A Russian lawyer was attacked and doused in green antiseptic dye at a bus stop in Moscow. Yelena Ponomareva, 46, said she was diagnosed with second-degree chemical eye burns following the attack carried out by an unidentified assailant.
A photo shared by her colleague showed Ponomareva’s head, arms and dress fully covered in the green antiseptic commonly known in Russia as zelyonka. Independent legal news outlet Advokatskaya Ulitsa said Ponomareva had been under state protection following past attacks. “I previously received threats to my life and health… in connection with my professional activity,” Ponomareva wrote on Facebook early Friday, without specifying which activities in particular would have made her the target of such an attack.
Ponomareva uploaded a photo of her car covered in white paint, saying it had previously been vandalized with paint and had its tires punctured.
The Moscow region bar association, which first reported the attack on the lawyer late said law enforcement had yet to open a criminal investigation into the incident.
It was the second high-profile attack using zelyonka this week, with award-winning Novaya Gazeta journalist Yelena Milashina brutally assaulted and covered with the green antiseptic in Chechnya on Tuesday.
Attacks using the dye have become widespread in Russia, as both jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Dmitry Muratov have been assaulted with zelyonka.
Meanwhile, Russian journalist Yelena Milashina has vowed to continue traveling to the republic of Chechnya despite a violent attack this week that left her hospitalized with multiple bone fractures and a brain injury.
“I will continue to travel to Chechnya, whether [Chechen leader Ramzan] Kadyrov wants me to or not,” Milashina told the independent media outlet Zhivoy Gvozd during a morning news program Friday.
“I need to go back to the scene of the crime,” Milashina said from a Moscow hospital where she was transferred after Tuesday’s attack in the Chechen capital of Grozny.
Milashina, who has covered Chechen rights abuses for the disbanded independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was traveling to a court hearing with a lawyer when they were stopped and attacked by a group of unknown assailants.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, launched a criminal investigation into the attack.
During Friday’s news program, Milashina recalled that her assailants said they were part of the same group that had attacked her and another lawyer in February 2020.
Milashina told Zhivoy Gvozd journalists that a criminal investigation into the 2020 attack remained unresolved.
Kadyrov has publicly threatened Milashina with physical violence for her coverage of the North Caucasus region which the Kremlin loyalist has ruled with an iron fist since 2007.
Milashina temporarily fled Russia in early 2022 following Kadyrov’s threat to “destroy” her.
