The last time Nadezhda Chaykova was seen alive she was heading in the direction of the Chechen town of Samashki. It was March 1996 and the 32-year-old journalist planned to disguise herself as a Chechen peasant woman in order to expose corruption in the Russian federal army. Soon afterwards, her body was found in a shallow grave.
Her investigations up to then had uncovered embezzlement by leaders on all sides of funds destined for the reconstruction of the republic's war-ravaged economy. After her articles appeared, she was threatened with her life to stop her investigations. She carried on. Clues as to who killed her came in a note from Chaykova herself and the testimony of a local official - both point towards the culpability of Russian federal troops. The post mortem found that she had paid for her courage and determination by being blindfolded, severely beaten and finally shot in the back of the head.