Reports of torture of gays produce no investigation

MOSCOW — Chechen state television promised over the weekend to produce a tell-all investigation into reports on the torture of gay men in that Russian republic — not into the question of torture itself, but into how the story saw the light of day.

It said the existence of gays in Chechnya was “invented by opposition media.”

Chechnya has become increasingly socially rigid under the rule of Moscowbacked strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Mr. Kadyrov, in a social-media post Sunday, blamed “so-called human rights organizations” that were “using the most unworthy methods, distorting reality, trying to blacken our society, lifestyle, traditions and customs.”

Chechnya has called on the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which first reported on the abuse and killings of gay men there, to recant its article.

“To finish this dangerous conflict between us once and for all, you have to fulfill just three conditions,” wrote Dzhambulat Umarov, the minister for social politics in the Chechen Republic. “First, you must apologize to the Chechen people for the disgusting nonsense that you spread.” He also demanded that reporters abandon the use of anonymous sources and stop complaining of threats received from Chechnya.

Elena Milashina, one of two reporters who broke the story, has gone into hiding after receiving death threats.

Police and other law enforcement officials under Mr. Kadyrov, who fought the Russian government during Chechnya’s civil war before changing sides and who was named leader of Chechnya by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007, have been accused of torture and collective punishment before. But the details of what appears to be the systematic imprisonment and torture of gay men, who Mr. Kadyrov insists do not exist in Chechnya, were seen as particularly hair-raising.

“They attached wires from electroshockers to our hands and turned the dial of a generator, creating a shock. It was painful. I endured as much as I could, then lost consciousness and fell,” one man, who sent a photo showing bruises on his buttocks, wrote to Novaya Gazeta. The newspaper reported that more than 100 men had been detained and that three had been killed.

“When the current goes and your body starts to shake, you stop thinking and begin to scream,” the man wrote. “All this time you’re sitting and hear the screams of those being tortured.”