FOCUS ON CHECHNYA
In Chechnya, gay men are being
detained and executed.
In this semi-autonomous Republic
within the Russian federation, the
situation has been dreadful for LGBT+
people for years. Not only do many of
Russia’s strict LGBT laws apply, but
Chechnya’s legal code is also influenced
by powerful Islamist parties intending to
implement sharia law. In addition to
consensual sexual relations between
men being punishable by death,
Chechen leader has repeatedly
encouraged “honour killings”, which is to
say extrajudicial killings by family
members as an alternative to law
enforcement. Ramzan Kadyrov was
appointed by Putin in 2007, and since
then accused of widespread brutality,
human rights violation and suppression
of press freedom. However, despite the
long history of violence and persecution
against LGBT people, the attacks have
never happened at such a large scale.
On the 1st of April, Novaya
Gazeta, one of the most important
opposition newspaper, published a
report on the president’s forces arresting
and torturing men “in connection with
their nontraditional sexual orientation, or
suspicion of such”. This was confirmed
shortly afterwards by Ekaterina L.
Sokiryanskaya, who is the Russia project
coordinator for the International Crisis
Group. As of now, three deaths have
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been confirmed, but estimations are up
to 20 deaths.
The arrests began after
GayRussia.ru, a Moscow gay rights
group, began to apply for permits to
stage pride parades, in order to collect
denials and to build a case about gay
rights and freedom of assembly with the
European Union Court of Human
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municipalities, 4 of which were situated
in the predominantly muslim North
Caucasia region, near to but not in
Chechnya. This prompted a command
for a “prophylactic sweep” in Chechnya,
according to Novaya Gazeta.
Alvi Karimov, spokesman for
Razman Kadyrov deems the article to be
“absolute lies and disinformation” in a
statement to the news agency Interfax on
the 2nd of April. “You cannot arrest or
repress people who just don’t exist in the
republic. If such people existed in
Chechnya, law enforcement would not
have to worry about them as their own
relatives would have sent them to where
they could never return,” he said. He
added that: “in our Chechen society, any
person who respects our traditions and
culture will hunt down this kind of person
without any help from the authorities,
and do everything to make sure this kind