Who killed young Chechen woman who fled Russia for a life of freedom?

When 23-year-old Aisha Baimuradova fled her home last year, she thought she finally had a chance to live the way she wanted.

Hailing from Chechnya, a conservative Islamic republic in Russia, she cut her hair, stopped covering her head, shaved off part of her eyebrow and posted bizarre selfies on Instagram.

She told her new friends that she could finally breathe.

In October, Aisha was found dead in a rented apartment in neighboring Armenia. Police say she was murdered.

Two people were seen leaving the building where she was found, including a woman whom Aishat had befriended shortly before her death. Both reportedly left for Russia shortly afterwards.

Russians do not need a passport to enter Armenia; Their internal identity is sufficient. This also makes it an easy route for anyone trying to escape.

Human rights groups often describe Chechnya, located in Russia’s North Caucasus, as a state within a state, a place where power is highly personal and loyalty to leader Ramzan Kadyrov often trumps formal laws and institutions.

For years, human rights organizations have documented enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings in the republic, as well as the systematic persecution of opponents.

Chechen officials have consistently denied these accusations and complained of slander aimed at discrediting the region.

Many prominent critics of the Chechen authorities were killed abroad.

In 2009, Umar Israilov, Ramzan Kadyrov’s former bodyguard, was shot dead in Vienna, where he had sought asylum. Austrian authorities described the assassination as politically motivated and linked the killers to Chechnya.

Former Chechen rebel Selimkhan Khangoshvili was shot dead in a Berlin park in 2019, in an attack blamed on Russian security services.

But Aisha Baimuradova is the first known Chechen woman to have died under suspicious circumstances, shortly after fleeing Russia.

Like many other women who fled the area, she complained of her family’s control over her. She said she was forced to marry, was subject to surveillance, and was prohibited from leaving the house or using her phone. The BBC was unable to contact her family for comment.

Aishat arrived in Armenia at the end of 2024 with the help of SK-SOS, a crisis group that helps people in danger in the North Caucasus. She has complained publicly about the conservative gender rules and stifling control that women face in Chechnya.

At first, she worked in a small town, then moved to the capital, Yerevan, hoping to get a better job and more opportunities.

For many of those fleeing, such a vision is unimaginable. Most of them use pseudonyms, avoid showing their faces, and refuse to meet new people. Aisha chose a different path. Her friend, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “She really wanted a normal life.” “And she wanted to trust people.”

Her family tried to convince her to come back, but when nothing happened, they disowned her, according to SK SOS.

“They told her: ‘You are no longer our daughter or our wife. We will not touch you, just don’t touch us,'” Alexandra Miroshnikova, a spokeswoman for SK SOS, told the BBC.

Her uncle told local media that the family had no role in her death.

On the night of her death, Aishat was with a woman she had recently met online, who claimed to be from Dagestan, another Russian republic in the North Caucasus.

People who know Aishat told the BBC that it was the woman who first contacted her on social media, but then came to Armenia and invited her to parties.

A man was caught with her on CCTV as they left the building where Aisha’s body was found, and was reported by a popular Russian channel on Telegram as being of Chechen origin. The investigation outlet Agentstvo identified him as a relative of a businessman close to Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Chechen authorities deny any connection to Baimuradova’s death, condemn such insinuations and describe them as a “terrorist information attack.” Officials also criticized groups that help runaway women, accusing them of “destroying family traditions.”

Armenian authorities say they are investigating two unnamed people in connection with the killing of Aisha Baimuradova, but have not revealed further details about them.

Ramzan Kadyrov is sensitive to people who criticize Chechnya from abroad, says Michael Dennis, an expert on Chechen politics at the University of Texas.

Denis told the BBC: “The mere presence of the diaspora is a clear signal to the whole world that something is wrong in Chechnya. It is a matter of personal pride and political image.”

Since the early 2000s, asylum seekers from Chechnya have been coming to Europe – first fleeing war and then Kadyrov’s oppressive rule.

But changes in EU migration policy, followed by restrictions on visas for Russians due to the war in Ukraine, have almost closed this route.

This leaves the South Caucasus, where Russians can travel without a visa, as the easiest route to escape, but not the safest.

In July, another fugitive, Laura Avturkhanova, 24, was found in a shelter in Georgia by a group of male relatives who reportedly tried to force her to return to Russia. After being questioned by police, she was able to remain safe in Georgia.

For other Chechen women who fled, Aisha’s death has revived the fear that has haunted them since they left Russia.

Many of them told the BBC that, even before her killing, they were avoiding attending community events, avoiding speaking Chechen in public, and restricting their presence on social media.

Now they worry that it may not be enough to hide from those who might want to punish them.

“The fear I have lived with all my life – ingrained in my DNA – has awakened with renewed force,” said one escapee living in Western Europe, who asked that her name and exact location be withheld.

“It’s like sleep paralysis: A monster appears, and I lie there frozen, staring into its eyes. It’s the fear of killing.”

“You can escape, but you never feel free,” she said.