Anti-gay purge denied
Claims of violence and murders of men in Chechnya provocative, Russia says
REPORTS of violence against homosexuals in Chechnya had not been confirmed and phantom complaints to the media should instead be taken to the police, the Kremlin said yesterday.
The comments come a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who dismissed “provocative articles” about gay men being rounded up in Chechnya, and families who are encouraged to perform honour killings.
“So far we have not heard any confirmation of this information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“We know that when the law is broken, the citizen goes and complains to the police,” he said when a journalist noted that media outlets had spoken to such victims.
“Where are they? There are no people. Who are these people? Where do they live?” he asked.
“These are phantom complaints, absolutely depersonalised.
“What are they afraid of, that they will be taken under protection?”
Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said on Monday it was looking into the claims.
Journalists have spoken to several Chechens hiding in Moscow after fleeing the conservative Caucasus region where homosexuality is taboo and authorities have said that gays do not exist.
The men said they had been beaten and detained in unofficial prisons, and had fled because they were terrified of both the authorities and their own relatives.
The Russian LGBT Network, an NGO that helps Chechens persecuted for “homosexuality, both real and imagined” to flee the region, said on Monday that about 60 people had asked to be evacuated over a period of less than three weeks.
Journalists at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper which broke the story, which included reporting on the deaths of two gay men in Chechnya, said they had received threats.
In particular one of the journalists, Irina Gordiyenko, said she had received a death threat for her role in the investigation.
One of the alleged victims, Ilya, looked tired and drawn.
After allegedly being beaten and tortured by men in military uniform in Chechnya, he fled to Moscow, but still fears for his life.
“In Chechnya, I had no choice but to lie or die,” the 20-year-old said. He is now hiding out in a small house on the edge of Moscow with five other Chechens after they escaped what they say is a brutal campaign against gay men by authorities in the Muslim region of Russia’s North Caucasus.
All declined to give their real names for fear of someone recognising them and tracking them down.
“If any of my relatives realises I’m gay, they won’t hesitate a minute before killing me,” another of the men said.
“And if they don’t do it, they will get killed themselves for failing to uphold the family honour.”
While Ilya is now more than 1 800km from the Chechen capital of Grozny, he still jumps up each time a car drives close by the house, which is surrounded by a fence.
“By helping me, the Network has handed me a reprieve – but they’ll find me in the end,” he said quietly. “I’m terrified. I haven’t been able to sleep since I left.”
Human rights organisations and several countries, as well as the United Nations and the European Union, have called on Russian authorities to investigate the reports.
Activists have accused the authorities in Russia of turning a blind eye for fear of upsetting Kadyrov, in a region where Moscow fought two bloody separatist wars.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Monday she was disturbed by the reports.
Tanya Lokshina, of Human Rights Watch, said: “It will only take a call from the Kremlin to Kadyrov for the arrests to stop.
“Imagining people coming forward with information without getting any effective protection, any security guarantee, is just impossible.
“Here we are dealing with LGBT people and they are particularly vulnerable in Chechnya because, in addition to fearing the authorities, they also have to fear their own relatives,” she said.