Image: File photo of women on their way to a Pride Parade courtesy of SnappyPete via Twenty20 The Russian LGBT Network has begun evacuating survivors of the new wave of Chechnya’s gay purge and documenting the horrific abuse and torture they have been subjected to. In a statement released on Monday 21st January, the Russian LGBT Network said that suspected LGBT people are being held in two locations – in Argun and at a police station in Grozny, Chechnya’s capital city. “Once

Image Credit: People marching in a Pride Parade @littleivan via twenty20 The Russian LGBT Network has reported that a new wave of persecution against presumed LGBT men and women began in Russian Chechnya in late December 2018. Igor Kochetkov, director of the Russian LGBT Network, which evacuated 114 LGBT Chechens from the region last year, said it is difficult to get precise figures on the latest purge, however at least two people have died as a result of torture and at least

On Thursday November 1, sixteen member states of the Organization For Security And Co-operation In Europe (OSCE) activated an expert enquiry into the Chechen Gay Purge. Iceland's permanent representative to the OSCE, Guðni Bragason, read a statement to the Permanent Council on November 1, saying that "On August 30, we informed the Permanent Council about a letter we sent to the Russian delegation to request concrete information under the OSCE Vienna (Human Dimension) Mechanis

Image Credit: Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign used the Helsinki Summit between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Monday 16th July to pressure both leaders to stop the human rights abuses against suspected gay and bisexual men in Chechnya. A message was projected onto a wall at the Presidential Palace where the summit was held. The scrolling messages read: Trump and Putin: Stop the Crimes Against Humanity in Chechnya Investigate LGBTQ Persecution in

Russia’s acting Justice Minister Alexander Konavalov told the UN Human Rights Council on Monday that there was no gay purge in Chechnya because no LGBT people exist in the country. “The investigations that we carried out...did not confirm evidence of rights’ violations, nor were we even able to find representatives of the LGBT community in Chechnya. Please, help us do this and find them,” he told the UN council’s periodic review. Konovalov told the council that “work is being

Chechen anti-gay purge survivors share their stories while in Iran 30 men have been arrested and accused of being gay. In an April 19 meeting with Vladimir Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied reports of an anti-gay purge in the Muslim-majority Russian republic. Russian opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, reported on April 1 that Chechen police and security services started rounding up at least 100 presumed gay and bisexual men in February, starving, torturing and