On 2 October, Margarita Murakhtaeva was detained in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod after laying flowers at the place where her mother, journalist Irina Slavina, died after committing self-immolation five years ago.
Murakhtaeva was taken to the police station “to give explanations”, she herself told human rights activists.
Earlier, the publication “in the city N” wrote that the place of the journalist’s death was fenced off with temporary fences and signalling tape, and a police car was placed nearby.
On 2 October 2020, journalist Irina Slavina set herself on fire in front of the building of the Russian Interior Ministry. Before that, she published a post on Facebook with the words: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death”.
Shortly before the tragedy, Slavina’s home was searched in a case of participation in the activities of an “undesirable” organisation in Russia. Then 12 people came to her flat at six in the morning. The journalist said that during the search the law enforcement officers were looking for brochures, leaflets, and accounts of Open Russia, but they found nothing of the kind, but took thumb drives, her and her daughter’s laptop, computer, phones, and notebooks.
Despite the family’s attempts to prove the facts of violation of the rights of the deceased, the law enforcement agencies recognised the actions of the security agencies as lawful.
After Slavina’s death, her daughter Margarita Murakhtaeva received a fine on charges of “discrediting the army” in 2022 and lost her job, while her son Vyacheslav Murakhtaev voluntarily went to war, leaving his wife and two children at home.