New Report Documents the Assassination of Aidos Sadykov and Ongoing Repression of Natalia Sadykova
Two years after Kazakh journalist Aidos Sadykov was shot in broad daylight outside his home in Kyiv, no one has been held accountable — and the campaign against his family has not stopped. Today, Freedom for Eurasia publishes Two Years Without Justice, a new report documenting the killing and the transnational repression that continued against his widow and fellow journalist, Natalia Sadykova, in the time since.
Drawing on court filings, independent investigative reporting, and Freedom for Eurasia’s own documentation, the report traces a pattern that began well before the assassination: a bribery and coercion attempt, a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting the couple’s children, and warnings that went unheeded. It follows the case through Ukraine’s identification of two Kazakh nationals as suspects — and Kazakhstan’s refusal to extradite them or cooperate with repeated requests for legal assistance. And it documents what has happened since Aidos’s death: surveillance of Natalia Sadykova by a Kazakh intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover in Kyiv, a sustained campaign of phishing and platform manipulation against her and BASE, and a defamation lawsuit that bears the hallmarks of a SLAPP.
None of these tools — physical, digital, or legal — is unique to this case. What makes it exceptional is the documentary record: a single family’s file showing the full spectrum of transnational repression deployed, in sequence, against one target, for one reason — independent journalism that reached Kazakhstan’s ruling and business elite.
The report sets out concrete recommendations for the OSCE, the European Union, and UN human rights bodies, including anti-SLAPP protections for journalists in exile, sustained diplomatic pressure for accountability in the Sadykov case, and a European Parliament resolution naming it directly.
Read the full report, available in English and Russian: