Chechnya’s Anti-Gay Pogrom | Crisis Group

Contents:

• CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE
• CHECHEN MEN SCRIBE HOW THEY WERE TORTURED FOR BEG GAY
• NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN
• 'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA
• CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR
• JOURNALIST WHO REVEALED KILLG OF GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA BTALLY ATTACKED
• RUTHLS WARLORD WHO LED 'GAY PURG' CHECHNYA KILLED FIGHTG FOR RSIA UKRAE
• CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.
• JOURNALIST WHO UNVERED CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY PURGE ATTACKED
• CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• 2 GAY CHECHENS HELD ON TERROR CHARG WHOUT PROOF – NGO
• RSIA: NEW ANTI-GAY CRACKDOWN CHECHNYA
• ‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA
• A VICTIM OF THE ANTI-GAY PURGE CHECHNYA SPEAKS OUT: 'THE TTH EXISTS'
• CHECHNYA ACCED OF 'GAY GENOCI' ICC PLAT
• WARLORD WHO HELPED OVERSEE CHECHNYA’S BTAL ‘GAY PURGE’ KILLED UKRAE
• PRO-PUT CHECHEN GENERAL WHO LED 'GAY PURGE' KILLED UKRAE
• THE GAY MEN WHO FLED CHECHNYA’S PURGE
• AT LEAST 100 GAY MEN HAVE BEEN ROUND UP AND THROWN NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA
• GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA DPERATELY NEED THE WORLD'S HELP
• CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY POGROM

CHECHNYA: ESPED GAY MEN SENT BACK BY RSIAN POLICE

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has long been acced of persecutg sexual moriTwo gay Chechen men who fled to Rsia after allegedly beg tortured have been returned to Chechnya and are "mortal danger", a rights group Rsian LGBT Network said Salekh Magamadov and Ismail Isayev had been seized and returned by Rsian police. The group says they were later forcibly returned to thori Chechnya, a southern republic of people and other sexual mori face systematic persecutn predomantly Mlim Chechnya, where homophobia is regn's thorarian lear, Ramzan Kadyrov, has nsistently nied allegatns of illegal tentns and human rights and other ernment officials have even suggted there are no members of the LGBT+ muny source, RtersImage ptn, Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov (R) has nsistently nied allegatns of human rights abDpe official nials, dozens have e forward wh allegatns that they have been taed and tortured by thori bee of their sexual Magamadov and Mr Isayev are among LGBT Network said the men had arrived at a police statn the Chechen town of Gurm on Saturday.

"They are tired and ightened, " a spokman for the group, Tim Btsvet, told AFP news the ctody of Chechen thori, the men were "mortal danger", Mr Btsvet source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechnya has nied the existence of gay people the regnThe group has been monorg alleged ab Chechnya sce 2017, when dozens of gay people were reportedly 2019, the group alleged a h wave of persecutn and ab, accg Chechen police of killg two people unr torture. MOSCOW (Rters) - Two men om Chechnya have told Rters they were taed by police and subjected to torture and beatgs bee they were gay, which is nsired a crime by some their eply nservative regn of two have sce fled maly Mlim Chechnya, but they still fear beg hunted down and persecuted.

His spokman has said there uld be no attacks on gay men bee there were no such people Rsian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported April that thori Chechnya had round up over 100 gay men or men believed to be gay and tortured them. Kreml crics regard the report as further evince that Mosw allows thori Chechnya to n the regn - which has been nsumed by two wars sce the 1991 distegratn of the Soviet Unn - as a fdal fiefdom exchange for keepg separatist and radil Islamist sentiment send Chechen man, who gave his name as Ramzan, said he had been taed by police April and told to give the nam, addrs and work plac of his gay ntacts.

CHECHEN MEN SCRIBE HOW THEY WERE TORTURED FOR BEG GAY

The Rsian LGBT Network has reported that May 2021, Chechen-speakg men abducted Ibragim Selimkhanov Mosw and forcibly returned him to Chechnya’s pal Grozny, where thori terrogated him about gay people the regn. "Ricky's oral was mid-2018 and was a faiar early 2017, the world had beme aware of reports that Chechen thori were roundg up and torturg dozens of men they spected of beg gay, what me to be known as a "gay purge". The nam of most of those terviewed have been changed at their requt out of ncern the Chechen thori or their fai might harm acunts pat a picture of a place where there is now virtually no space to be gay, where datg rri potentially lethal nsequenc and the supprsn of their inty is obligatory for LGBT people.

NO END TO CHECHNYA’S VLENT ANTI-GAY CAMPAIGN

He has done that, g allegedly savage methods, and the procs Kadyrov has remolled Chechnya around himself, erectg a police state and a cult of personaly built around an obssive machismo centered on sport, particularly martial the majory-Mlim regn, wh a eply nservative culture, beg gay was never accepted. "In 2017, that nservative hostily to homosexualy seemed to nvert to anised terror, part of a broar nservative mpaign that has also targeted dg and alhol Dzhabrailov, 27, only the send man to e forward publicly about his tentn 2017, told ABC News that armed police took him om the hair salon where he was workg.

For 14 days, he said, he was held a basement wh several other gay men, taken out for torture ssns, where he was electrocuted and subjected to a mock Dzhabrailov tells ABC News'' Jam Longman the torture and terrogatn he says he endured at the hands of Chechen News"They put me on the wall, put bag on my head, " he remembered.

'ANY DAY YOU N BE TAKEN': INSI WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY CHECHNYA

Insi, Aluadov showed the reporters the empty cells, which were clean and looked rarely ed, as though mostly sisted he uldn't nceive how a Chechen man uld be gay and said was not him but Chechen society that will not tolerate gay men. Victims have repeatedly scribed beg hand back over to their fai wh a suggtn that they kill them themselv and many of speakg anonymoly said they feared their relativ would harm them if they found such circumstanc, discsg homosexualy, let alone g out is impossible. He eventually sought asylum , a bisexual man livg the neighborg republic of Dagtan, where attus are very siar to Chechnya, had a wife and a 1-year-old baby when he said his life was men lured him to an apartment where they beat him and forced him to adm he was gay on mera.

CHECHNYA’S HORRIFIC ‘GAY PURGE’: A 4-YEAR TIMELE OF ABDUCTN, TORTURE AND MURR

'It’s harr for women bee they n’t leave'Many LGBT Chechens lk the eptn of more systematic vlence the past few years to a worseng atmosphere of homophobia Rsia, signaled by the passg of the notor so-lled "anti-gay propaganda" law law, which effectively banned public displays of homosexualy, has been cricized by rights groups as green-lightg discrimatn and vlence agast LGBT over Rsia, gay people reported creased hostily. April 1, 2021, marks four years sce the world at large was first ma aware of Chechnya’s gay purge — atroci mted agast LGBTQ people wh the Rsian republic’s borrs, a horrific, ongog stratagem of abductn, tament, torture and murr. Gradually rebed by Wtern ernments over the years as first-hand acunts began to emerge, Chechnya’s gay purge has largely been ignored — if not supported through omissn — by Rsian Print Vladimir Put and his ernment.

” Lol thori tell a news agency, “You nnot arrt or reprs people who jt don’t exist the republic, ” suggtg that Chechnya has no gay cizens, and that if did, those cizens’ relativ would have executed them unr honor killg ctoms.

JOURNALIST WHO REVEALED KILLG OF GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA BTALLY ATTACKED

Amnty Internatnal lnch an “urgent actn” mpaign askg dividuals to wre to Rsian thori “urgg them to rry out prompt, effective and thorough vtigatns to the reports of abductns and killgs of men believed to be gay Chechnya and to ensure that anyone found guilty or plic such crim will be brought to jtice acrdance wh the laws of the Rsian Feratn. It’s now believed that up to several hundred gay men have been round up, some killed, Chechnya, and The Guardian publish this story followg terviews wh gay men who claim they were tortured secret tentn facili.

RUTHLS WARLORD WHO LED 'GAY PURG' CHECHNYA KILLED FIGHTG FOR RSIA UKRAE

As part of a special vtigatn, CNN releas terviews wh multiple victims of Chechnya’s gay purge (their inti ncealed), who discs the form their torture took and the “ath sentence” that has always rulted om beg openly gay the Southern Rsian republic. Speakg to Gay Star News, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokperson the UK nfirms that Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic, has threatened to rid the area of homosexualy “by Ramadan, ” which falls on May 26. Followg reports of a 17-year-old man thrown off a nth floor balny by his own uncle for beg gay, Hor announc the lnch of s “Know Your Rights” mpaign, an tnal effort to help make gay men and travelers aware of their rights different untri around the world.

Three French LGBTQ groups — Stop Homophobia, Mose and Come Idaho France — file a plat agast Chechnya wh the Internatnal Crimal Court, accg the Rsian republic of “a policy of genoci” towards gay people and blamg Chechen print Ramzan Kadyrov and his officials for a “wave of persecutn. The Baltic News Service reports that the eastern European natn of Lhuania has granted visas to at least two men who fled Chechnya’s gay purge, timed wh the Internatnal Day Agast Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). On the eve of the first G20 summ meetg between Tmp and Put, The Rsian LGBT Network — which has at this pot helped approximately 40 gay Chechens pe the regn — says has “received more lls om Chechnya the last 72 hours” and has “credible evince that arrts are happeng aga.

The report has three other ma takeaways: (1) the cultural ndns that set the stage for Chechnya’s anti-gay purge; (2) how Chechen thori are fdg spected homosexuals, cludg roadsi stops, home raids and workplace viss; and (3) the torture methods ed Chechnya’s gay purge, cludg electrocutn, beatgs, starvatn, hydratn, isolatn, forced nudy and verbal abe. Rankg exam everythg om anti-discrimatn legislatn, marriage equaly, adoptn and transgenr rights to negative factors like relig fluence, hostile lols, whether or not Pri events have been banned, and the really dangero stuff: prosecutn, murr and ath sentenc for beg gay.

CHECHNYA IS TRYG TO EXTERMATE GAY PEOPLE. OUR SILENCE ONLY EMBOLNS VLADIMIR PUT AND RAMZAN KADYROV.

The Rsian LGBT Network nfirms to Hor that Chechnya’s gay purge has neher stopped nor let up: “We know for sure that persecutn of LGBT people Chechnya did not stop; we ntue to receive rmatn that people are still kidnapped, taed and tortured. Magomed Thayev was killed fightg for the Hostomel Airport a day after his lear claimed that his si had not suffered a sgle loss and none of his troops even had a 'nny nose'Magomed Thayev was a btal warlord A spotic general who thlsly round up and killed LGBT+ people an act that beme known as the “gay purge” has been killed the fightg Ukrae. The general was specifilly implited playg a role the 2021 kidnappg of activists and gay man Ibragim Selimkhanov, who was kidnapped om a Mosw subway statn and bundled to a r and then a plane before he was flown to Grozny, Chechnya’s pal.

“Image the 21st century, a supposedly secular untry, ” says David Isteev, at the start of this acclaimed documentary, “you have s where people are killed simply bee they are homosexual — where they are maimed, where the fai of the people are urged to kill their children and siblgs. “Wele to Chechnya” follows Isteev, emergency program ordator for the Rsian LGBT Network, and his fellow activists as they risk their liv tryg to protect gay Chechens om beg targeted both by the thori and their own fai.

JOURNALIST WHO UNVERED CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY PURGE ATTACKED

“We documented a large-sle, vic, anti-gay purge” marked by “torture, enforced disappearanc, and extrajudicial killgs, ” Tanya Loksha, the Rsia program director at Human Rights Watch, told me a phone terview om Mosw. “If there’s no punishment, ” says an exhsted-lookg Isteev toward the end of the film, “if LGBT people are regard as subhuman, if you n do anythg to them, means that tomorrow, anyone n fd themselv the sho of gay Chechens. Milasha ially reported on more than 100 Chechens — primarily gay men — who were arrted and taed makhift prisons and ncentratn mps, where they were often subjected to torture and asked to name other people whom they knew to be gay.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Chechen lear Ramzan Kadyrov has prevly claimed the reports were "ma up"Activists Rsia say there has been a new crackdown agast LGBT people Rsian LGBT Network believ about 40 people have been imprisoned sce December - two of whom they say have died unr group has been monorg alleged ab the maly Mlim Rsian republic sce 2017 when dozens of gay people were reportedly taed.

CHECHNYA LGBT: DOZENS 'TAED NEW GAY PURGE'

The men’s acunts are nsistent wh a crime report filed on January 29 wh Rsia’s chief vtigative agency by the Rsian LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr) Network, a proment LGBT rights group, which stated that December and January, police Grozny, Chechnya’s pal, round up and abed 14 men.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

“There wasn’t anythg remotely remblg an effective vtigatn to the anti-gay purge of 2017, when Chechen police round up and tortured dozens of men they spected of beg gay, ” said Rachel Denber, puty Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Police also forced several of the prumed gay mat to clean the toilet and wash floors and doors along a rridor, makg clear to them and the other mat that the gay tae were given “women’s work” as a form of huiatn. Activists of the Rsian LGBT Network told Human Rights Watch that based on the rmatn the work received om var sourc and cross-checked, Chechen police taed at least 23 men between December and April bee of their prumed homosexualy. In November 2018, 16 participatg stat of the Organizatn for Secury and Co-Operatn Europe (OSCE) voked the anizatn’s “Mosw Mechanism” and appoted a rapportr to look to allegatns of ab Chechnya, cludg the anti-gay purge.

But for the young man who lls himself Maksim, as for sr of other gay men arrted a pogrom this month Rsia’s Chechnya regn, pivoted to nearly two weeks of beatgs and said had started wh a chat room nversatn wh “a very good old iend who is also gay, ” and who suggted that they meet at an apartment.

2 GAY CHECHENS HELD ON TERROR CHARG WHOUT PROOF – NGO

In Chechnya, beme somethg even worse — a mass “prophylactic” cleansg of homosexuals, the secury service agents told the gay men as they round them men were held for as ltle as a day or as long as several weeks, acrdg to Human Rights Watch and to terviews wh gay men who later ped the regn. Pkov, told journalists that the Rsian thori had found no evince that the Chechen police had arrted gay quickly beme clear to Maksim and the other men that the Chechen thori were applyg the same tactics ed by Rsia and by Mr.

RSIA: NEW ANTI-GAY CRACKDOWN CHECHNYA

His acunt of the ceptn ed to ta him was nsistent wh others documented by Human Rights Watch and wh the acunts of the two other gay men terviewed separately for this six of the men the apartment were transferred to a makhift cell an abandoned buildg, where they were tortured wh electricy one by one, Maksim 11 days, he was released to a male relative, who was told that Maksim was gay.

‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

Petersburg, which has tablished an emergency, round-the-clock volunteer group to help gay men pe the reassure the victims they are tryg to help, the activists have taken extraordary preutns, operatg virtually as a partisan cell behd enemy l, though they have done nothg illegal unr Rsian law. “The people don’t tst anybody, ” said Olga Baranova, director of the Mosw Communy Center, a support group for gays that is part of the volunteer work helpg gay men flee arrivg at the safe lotn outsi Chechnya, several young men said they had spected that the volunteer group was also a trap but had no other optn but to accept the help, Ms.

Though the three men didn’t expla why they had e, soon beme clear, as they took Dzhabrailov’s phone, mand his password and started surg the vice for msag and photos that would prove he was guilty of somethg nsired eply shameful the nservative, predomantly Mlim republic: beg gay. Dpe ternatnal attentn and outcry that followed the 2017 purge — cludg lls for Rsian officials to vtigate reported lawlsns and misbehavr among Chechen law enforcement — human rights anizatns say another anti-gay sweep took place late 2018 and early 2019.

A VICTIM OF THE ANTI-GAY PURGE CHECHNYA SPEAKS OUT: 'THE TTH EXISTS'

One ernment spokperson said wasn’t possible bee gay people “don’t exist” that part of Rsia and if they did, their own relativ would be so ashamed that they “would have sent them to where they uld never return. Given the strength of the taboo Chechnya, beg openly gay “is simply not an optn” and “g out of the closet would be suicidal, ” says Tanya Loksha, associate director for Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia. Image source, AFPImage ptn, Concern about the plight of gay men Chechnya rurfaced across Europe last month followg reports of persecutn the Rsian newspaper Novaya GazetaThree French gay rights groups have acced the Rsian republic of Chechnya of a policy of genoci towards gay people a plat filed at the Internatnal Crimal Court.

Chechen officials have nied that gay people even exist the the three French groups have rejected Rsia's ternal vtigatn, and want the Internatnal Crimal Court The Hague to start work before Rsia whdraws om s jurisdictn November. It quoted the lear of Idaho France - one of the three groups stigatg the ICC se - as sayg the urt was the only way they uld pursue their week five gay rights activists were taed Mosw as they tried to liver a petn to the office of Rsia's prosecutor said they were held bee their actn was activists said more than two ln people had signed the petn to vtigate alleged torture and tentns of gay people Chechnya. ”Acrdg to the Bla: “Sourc wh Rsian-based human rights anizatns nfirmed that Thayev played an unspecified role as recently as May of 2021 when human rights activist and a gay man, Ibragim Selimkhanov, was abducted om a subway statn the Novogireyevo District of the Rsian pal cy of Mosw by four Chechen operativ and flown agast his will to the Chechen pal cy of Grozny.

CHECHNYA ACCED OF 'GAY GENOCI' ICC PLAT

"Sce 2017, human and LGBTQ+ activists noted that Chechen secury operativ and other officials the Kadyrov regime, cludg Thayev sourc nfirmed, have round up dozens of men on spicn of beg gay, held them unofficial tentn facili for days, huiated, starved and tortured them, what has been dubbed Chechnya’s 'anti-gay purge, " the report add. The tails were gome; lol police had allegedly round up dozens of men and tortured them secret prisons until they divulged the nam of other homosexuals, who were then subjected to the same cycle of vlence, acrdg to an April report pennt newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

WARLORD WHO HELPED OVERSEE CHECHNYA’S BTAL ‘GAY PURGE’ KILLED UKRAE

“It’s been a big ncern of ours, ” says Kimahli Powell, the executive director of Rabow Railroad, a Canadian advocy group that helps rettle gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people who face persecutn around the world. In early April 2017, the Rsian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that men the Republic of Chechnya acced of beg gay had been "illegally taed, beaten, tortured wh electric shocks" and held for ransom "secret prisons" around Chechnya, cludg a former ary facily the town of Argun. THEY are round up the ad of night by gangs of burly and beard mercenari, taken om their beds or nabbed raids on secretive unrground gay social are searched and other spected homosexuals are hunted down, wh some of them ed entrapment-style stg operatns to fd more and more of the so-lled ‘praved’ ptured men — at least 100 of them so far, but probably more — are taken to old ary or police buildgs which have been scribed as “morn day ncentratn mps” by human rights groups.

Beatgs, fe tentn, electrocutn, emotnal abe and bizarre forced quasi-sexual acts have been reported om the horrific prisons the republic of ’s the first time sce World War II and Hler’s Third Reich that homosexual men have been round up and kept of the men hunted by Chechnyan forc are blackmailed and forced to pay large ransoms for their eedom. Internatnal attentn has also turned to regnal lear Ramzan Kadyrov, who not only rejects the existence of the mps but ni there are any gay people the disputed terrory at there were, they would sentially be exiled anyway, Kadyrov Kreml has nied any knowledge of the purge but one Rsian newspaper scribed as part of a mpaign “ nnectn wh their non-tradnal sexual orientatn, or spicn of such” level of anisatn, number of perpetrators and accs to state-owned buildgs and rourc suggts high-level volvement, wtern media have intified ncentratn mp was a dised ary mand pound the town of Argun.

PRO-PUT CHECHEN GENERAL WHO LED 'GAY PURGE' KILLED UKRAE

”Mobile phon were kept on while the men were taed, so any lovers or gay iends who phoned or msaged uld be round up survivg prisoner said he had seen another man beaten so horrifilly and ntually that he was almost ad. “People ught Chechnya unr persecutn bee of their sexual orientatn, took to the ntact through var channels, ” the Gazeta reports of Chechnya’s gay purge have attracted ternatnal attentn and nmnatn, wh Ameri’s Ambassador to the Uned Natns Nikki Haley llg for an vtigatn.

THE GAY MEN WHO FLED CHECHNYA’S PURGE

It is two months sce reports surfaced the pennt Rsian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that the Chechen thori have been tag, torturg and even killg gay men, as part of a plorable mpaign to purge the republic of people of “non-tradnal orientatn”. Amnty Internatnal spoke to wns who scribed how men spected of beg gay are publicly huiated when the thori e for them – dragged away ont of their fai and lleagu, puttg them at risk of reprisals even if they are eventually released.

AT LEAST 100 GAY MEN HAVE BEEN ROUND UP AND THROWN NCENTRATN MPS CHECHNYA

GAY PEOPLE CHECHNYA DPERATELY NEED THE WORLD'S HELP

CHECHNYA’S ANTI-GAY POGROM