Support The Moscow Times!

Petitioners Arrested Protesting Chechnya's LGBT Crackdown

Benson Kua / Flickr

Five people have been arrested while delivering a petition calling for an investigation into the reported abuse of LGBT people in Russia's southern Chechen republic.

The group, who planned to hand in the petition at the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow, had collected more than two million signatures from online activism platforms such as Change.org, All Out and Avaaz.

Nikita Safronov, a member of activist organization Open Russia, said that police arrested the group for holding “an unapproved demonstration.”

He told Russia's RBC news outlet that police officers arrived shortly after the activists left the city's Triumfalnaya Square.

The activists planned to call on Russia's Prosecutor General to investigate reports that gay men had been illegally detained, tortured and killed at the hands of the Chechen security services.

Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported in April that over 100 gay men had been held in secret prisons across the region, subjected to physical beatings and electric shocks.

The Kremlin has so far refused calls for a federal investigation, instead handing responsibility to the Chechen authorities. 

Officials in Grozny have also denied the claims, with a spokesperson for Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov claiming that gay people "simply do not exist" in the republic.

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

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 you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more