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

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

Originally from Russia’s conservative Muslim republic of Chechnya, she cut her hair short, stopped covering her head, shaved off part of her eyebrows and posted quirky selfies on Instagram.

She told her new friends that she could finally breathe.

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

Two people were seen leaving the building where she was found, including a woman whom Elsa met shortly before her death. The two reportedly traveled to Russia shortly thereafter.

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

Chechnya, located in Russia’s North Caucasus region, is often described by human rights groups as a state within a state, where power is highly personalized and loyalty to longtime leader Ramzan Kadyrov often trumps law and formal institutions.

Over the years, human rights groups have documented enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions in the republic, as well as the systematic persecution of dissidents.

Chechen officials have always denied the accusations, complaining they were fabricated and aimed at discrediting the region.

Several prominent critics of the Chechen authorities have been killed abroad.

In 2009, Ramzan Kadyrov’s former bodyguard Umar Israilov was shot dead while seeking asylum in Vienna. Austrian authorities said the assassination was politically motivated and linked the killers to Chechnya.

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

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

Like many other women who fled the area, she complained of being controlled by her family. She said she was forced into marriage, placed under surveillance and was not allowed to leave her home or use her mobile phone. The BBC was unable to contact her family for comment.

Aishat arrived in Armenia in late 2024 with the help of SK-SOS, a crisis organization that helps people at risk in the North Caucasus. She has complained publicly about Chechnya’s conservative gender rules and the suffocating control women face.

At first, she worked in a small town, but later moved to the capital, Yerevan, hoping to find better work and more opportunities.

For many who fled, such visibility was unimaginable. Most people use pseudonyms, avoid showing up, and refuse to meet new people. Aishat chose a different path. “She really wanted a normal life,” her friend, who requested anonymity, told the BBC. “She wants to trust people.”

According to SK SOS, her family tried to persuade her to come back, but to no avail and they severed ties with her.

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

Her uncle told local media that her family had nothing to do with 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 Aishaat told the BBC that the woman first contacted her on social media and later came to Armenia and invited her to a party.

The Russian Telegram channel reported that a man from Chechnya was caught on surveillance walking with Aisha as she left the building where her body was found. Investigative media Agentstvo identified him as a relative of a businessman close to Ramzan Kadyrov.

Chechen authorities deny any connection to Baimuradova’s death, denouncing such claims as a “terrorist information attack.” Officials also criticized groups that aid fleeing women, accusing them of “undermining family traditions.”

Armenian authorities said they were investigating two unnamed people in connection with the murder of Aishaat Baimuradovar, but they gave no further details about them.

Michael Dennis, an expert on Chechen politics at the University of Texas, said Ramzan Kadyrov was sensitive to critics of Chechnya abroad.

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

Asylum seekers from Chechnya have been pouring into Europe since the early 2000s, first fleeing the war and later Kadyrov’s repressive rule.

But changes in EU immigration policy, and subsequent visa restrictions on Russians due to the war in Ukraine, have all but closed the route.

That makes the South Caucasus, where Russians can travel visa-free, the easiest escape route, but far from the safest.

In July, another escapee, 24-year-old Laura Avtorkhanova, was discovered in a Georgian shelter by a group of male relatives who reportedly tried to force her to return to Russia. After being interviewed by police, she was able to remain safely in Georgia.

For other Chechen women who fled, Aishat’s death reignited fears that had dogged them since they left Russia.

Some told the BBC that even before her murder, they were avoiding community events, avoiding speaking Chechen in public and limiting their presence on social media.

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

“The fear I have endured all my life – ingrained in my DNA – has now reawakened with new vigor,” said a fugitive living in Western Europe, who asked that her name and precise location be withheld.

“It was like sleep paralysis: a monster appeared and I lay there frozen, staring into its eyes. It was the fear of being killed.”

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