"LGBT Network" activists complain about threats received from Chechen natives

David Isteev, the coordinator of the emergency help programme of the "Russian LGBT Network", and one of the volunteers have submitted application to the police about the murder threats, received, according to their information, from natives from Chechnya.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 11, the "Novaya Gazeta" reported on another wave of persecution of gays in the Chechen Republic. According to the Russian LGBT Network, since the end of December 2018, about 40 people were detained in Chechnya for their supposed or actual non-traditional sexual orientation; two persons were killed.

The volunteer of the hotline of the "Russian LGBT Network" said that he had received threats from seven unknown men who came to his home in Saint Petersburg on May 17. According to the volunteer, three of them were residents of Chechnya; while the other four hinted that they worked for the police, but failed to show their IDs. One of the alleged law enforcers told him, as the volunteer states, "We'll take you to the ROVD (District Interior Division) and break your bones there." According to the "Russian LGBT Network", the visitors were looking for David Isteev, the emergency help programme coordinator, and a Chechen girl who left home; but the volunteer knew nothing about them, the "Mediazona" reported on May 24. Mr Isteev and the volunteer filed applications to the police, the "Novaya Gazeta" has reported.

David Isteev and the volunteer, whose home was visited on May 17 by seven unidentified men, are safe, says the network. "Now, both the volunteer and David Isteev are safe; but it is difficult to say how the situation will develop further, and how seriously and what these unknown people intend to do," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by the "Russian LGBT Network".

According to data voiced out by "the Russian LGBT Network" on January 29, 2019, since April 2017, about 150 persons of the non-traditional sexual orientation were evacuated from the region, over 130 of them left Russia.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 25, 2019 at 05:10 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.