130 North-Caucasian gays appeal for evacuation since launch of "Russian LGBT Network" hotline

The "Russian LGBT Network" has released the statistics of appeals to its hotline, open to help people subjected to pressure and persecution in Northern Caucasus because of their sexual orientation. During 3.5 months from the start of the action, 130 people have appealed for help, and 60 of them were evacuated.

Igor Kochetkov, the leader of the "Russian LGBT Network", informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that after the end of Ramadan, reports about persecution of gays in Chechnya again began to arrive to the NGO's hotline.

Tatiana Lokshina, the Russia programme director at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), believes there are no grounds for doubting the scale of repressions voiced by the "Russian LGBT Network".

"The figures mentioned by them include not only the victims of a spring raid on gays in Chechnya, but also those people who fled for fear of detention, as well as those people who received threats from their relatives," explained Tatiana Lokshina.

She has also noted that the "Russian LGBT Network" does not claim a start of a new mass "hunt", similar to a spring punitive campaign, but reports that the information got by them indicates other forms of harassment, including threats of relatives and unreasonable institution of criminal cases.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.