NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA
United Nations experts on Thursday demanded that Chechnya immediately stop the violent repression of gay and bisexual men in the region, including beatings, detention, and even murder. Reports of the abuse note an unofficial detention center about 10 miles east of the Chechen capital of Grozny. “These are acts of persecution and violence on an unprecedented scale in the region and constitute serious violations of the obligations of the Russian Federation under international human-rights law,” said the panel of five tasked with advising the United Nations Human Rights Council. “The arrested men are subjected to physical and verbal abuse, torture including with electric shocks, beatings, insults, and humiliations.” Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his government have issued chilling responses to the allegations in recent weeks. “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,” said government spokesman Alvi Karimov. Officials in Russia on Friday denied any knowledge of such activity. “We do not have any reliable information about any problems in this area,” said a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.