Support The Moscow Times!

2 Tortured to Death in New Anti-Gay Purge in Chechnya, Activist Says

Anton Podgaiko / TASS

At least two members of the LGBT community have been killed as part of a new round of purges in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, an activist has told The Moscow Times.

Reports surfaced last week that Chechnya has seen a spike since December in detentions of women and men suspected of being gay. A spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who had maintained that there are no gay people in his region, dismissed the claims as “disinformation.”

“I can confirm that two gay men were killed while being tortured,” the head of the St. Petersburg-based LGBT Network, Igor Kochetkov, told The Moscow Times on Monday.

He said around 40 people have been detained since the latest crackdown began on Dec. 29 and that Chechen police have confiscated the detainees’ travel documents.

“This wasn’t happening in 2017,” he said, referring to Chechnya’s crackdown on LGBT people first reported on by the investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta. “Everything is being done so that they can’t flee the country.”

“And this is very bad for us because it makes our work much more difficult in terms of evacuation,” Kochetkov told The Moscow Times.

Meanwhile, the Meduza news website reported on Monday that between 10 and 20 gay men and women had been killed in Chechnya in the past month. It cited an exiled member of the North Caucasus LGBT community who said he maintains contacts with witnesses of the latest alleged purge.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter

Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview
Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy

A Message from The Moscow Times:

Dear readers,

We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."

These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.

By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.

Once
Monthly
Annual
Continue
paiment methods
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.

Read more