In the photo: Elena Milashina and Abu Umar Sassitlinsky.
On July 29, 2015, «Novaya Gazeta» published a sensational article by Elena Milashina titled «Caliphate? A Bait for Fools!», devoted to the problem of the mass exodus of the inhabitants of the village of Novosassitli to the war in Syria. This article, in addition to general statements and conclusions on this issue, contained a fragment dedicated to a specific person — a well-known Islamic preacher from Dagestan, Abu Umar Sassitlinsky. In this fragment of the article the accusations against him, allegedly made by the then head of the village, Akh’ya Abdulayev, were presented. However, we now have audio confessions from both Elena Milashina and Akh’ya Abdulayev, which we will present below, in which both confirm that the accusations against Abu Umar Sassitlinsky attributed to the former head of the village were not uttered by him. But first, let’s present the corresponding fragment of the article with the bolded sentences that contain these accusations or indicate their source.
«On the photo: the head of the village of Novosassitli, Akh’ya Abdulayev.
«I was told that a special fund was organized to buy passports. How did this go unnoticed by the special services?» I asked Akh’ya carefully.
«Well, I have no doubt about it. There were special forces who brought money and made passports. And they protect the recruiters who preach about the holy war during the Friday prayers. We have two of them here. One is registered in Astrakhan, doesn’t work anywhere, but has enough money to support four wives. Our Sassitlinets listened to him during the morning prayer when he talked about how returning from the Holy War is a grave sin. And they had just returned. It took a lot of effort to get them through the FSB. In the end, they left the same day. And they were caught. The first time they came back was before the changes in the criminal code, and the maximum sentence they faced was probation. Well — one year. But when we took them out the second time, the amendments came into force, and now they will be in jail for a long time. And the recruiter? nothing. He continues to preach. The second one lives in Turkey. His name is Abu Umar Sassitlinsky. He is a well-known figure in the village, but not respected. He is a fraud.»
«What do you mean?»
«Literally. He made a lot of money from this ISIS…»
So, we see that in the above fragment, Milashina asks Akh’ya Abdulayev about Abu Umar Sassitlinsky, and he allegedly calls him a «fraud» who «made a lot of money with ISIS.
Of course, those who know Akh’ya Abdulayev and his good relations with fellow villager Abu Umar Sassitlinsky could not help but wonder — did he really say that? He was asked this question, and here is his answer (audio in Avar, transcript in Russian below):
In the photo: «Novaya Gazeta» journalist Elena Milashina.
«There were provocative questions, and an FSB officer was present. I understood that this was an attack from both sides, that nothing would come out of it, and I understood that they would do whatever they wanted… Allah is my witness, I did not say anything against him. I think I have nothing to do with it. The special services made these accusations against him, and they are still doing it.
Then Akhaya Abdulayev himself asked Elena Milashina on what basis she attributed these words to him. And here is what she answered:
On the photo: Journalist of «Novaya Gazeta» Elena Milashina.
«Good afternoon. My name is Elena Valerievna Milashina, I am a special correspondent for «Novaya Gazeta». In 2014 I visited the village of Novosassitli, I met you when you were the head of the village. We spoke on the record in my notebook, because you refused and did not want me to record you on a dictaphone, so there is no audio recording of our conversation. We talked about the residents of the village who went to the war in Syria and about the residents of the village who returned and talked about how the propaganda that influenced them to go to the war in Syria did not correspond to the reality they saw there, and their testimony became a very important evidence against other residents, young people from this village, not to go to this foolish war. We didn’t talk about anything else. And there was enough information about Abu Umar Sassitlinsky, and it is available on the Internet, about what he is doing, and that allowed me to conclude that what he is doing under the guise of humanitarian aid, well, it may not be a fraud, let the court decide if he is guilty, but it has little to do with being called humanitarian or charitable activity.»
So we see that Elena Milashina not only admits that she has no recording of the conversation with the former village head, which in principle could explain why she cannot confirm that he made these accusations against Abu Umar Sassitlinsky. No, we see her admission that the village head did not say anything to her about Abu Umar Sassitlinsky, and that she herself «drew conclusions» about what he was doing because there was «enough information» on the Internet. Yes, there is enough information on the Internet, the question is what kind. And one can gather rumors, gossip and outright slander, as Elena Milashina did, or one can, for example, refer to the official website of the Rahma Foundation (http://rah-ma.org/), headed by Abu Umar Sassitlinsky, where information about his activities can be found in figures in the «Our Projects» section. 4500 wells dug, 50 mosques built, distribution of food and hijabs, care for orphans, strict accountability to donors for the use of their funds — all this, according to Milashina, «has little to do with being called humanitarian or charitable activity.
But Elena Milashina is free to think what she wants about it — it is on her conscience. The question is, why did she attribute words to her interviewee that he did not say? In her article she clearly lied, she knew that she was lying when she wrote those lines, and then she herself unequivocally admitted it. But she did not apologize or publicly refute the two defamed individuals, despite all the arguments presented to her in discussions about it.
In this regard, we appeal not to Elena Milashina, but to the management of «Novaya Gazeta», many of whose employees we respect for their principled, courageous and honest publications. Any journalist can make a mistake, and any editor can overlook publishing material with unreliable information, lacking all the necessary information. We are all human, we all make mistakes, and the fact of such a mistake cannot erase the reputation of either the journalist or the media itself.
But the ethics and reputation of both the journalist and the editor of the media outlet they work for exist only as long as they are willing to admit that the publication they made contained unreliable information when it is clearly proven to them. In this case, there is no need to prove anything — Elena Milashina herself admits that she attributed accusations of fraud against the Islamic preacher Abu Umar Sassitlinsky to a person who did not utter them.
Therefore, in order for the publications of «Novaya Gazeta» to continue to be trusted by the readers of «Golos Islama» as the largest independent socio-political Islamic media in the Russian language, we suggest that its management adhere to the requirements of journalistic ethics (and, by the way, Russian legislation) and refute the information about Abu Umar Sassitlinsky that does not correspond to reality.