A man is attacked with a hammer while sleeping. What first appears as a fight in an apartment in a Swedish small town is actually a part of something bigger. What are Russian hitmen doing on Swedish soil?

Russian hitmen were sent to Sweden to assassinate Tumso Abdurakhmanov, a well-known critic of president Vladimir Putin’s ally, Chechnya’s strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov. We trace how a honey-trap was planned months before the hit and confront the criminal minds behind the murder in the Chechen capital of Grozny.

A secret intelligence report, exclusively reviewed by The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) for Mission Investigate, points out a spetsnaz unit based in Chechnya, found within the special units of the National Guard of Russia. Uncovering ties all the way up to the Kremlin. On the ground, in Chechnya, we trace and confront one of the masterminds behind the honey-trap. The reciever of text messages from Tumso’s then girlfriend, Elmira, who opened the door for the attacker.

This assassination attempt is one of many, targeting oppositional voices, bloggers and critics of the Kadyrov regime in Europe. In the wake of other assassination attempts, there have been 12 murders or attempted murders in 12 years, and this pattern reveals an escalation.