LGBT activists detained in Moscow while petitioning against Chechen purge

Five LGBT activists were detained in Moscow on Thursday while trying to submit a petition signed by two million people calling for an investigation into the torture and persecution of gay men in Chechnya.

A violent crackdown on gay people in the region was first reported in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta last month, which alleged more than 100 Chechen men suspected of being gay had been rounded up, and at least three killed.

The activists delivering the petition had met outside a central Moscow metro station and were planning to deliver boxes of signatures to the prosecutor general’s office close by, according to activist Irina Yatsenko.

Police said the activists were detained because their action amounted to an unsanctioned protest.

One of the activists detained, Yuri Guaiana, is an Italian citizen. Two others are members of the Open Russia group – run by the self-exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky – which was banned by the prosecutor general as an “undesirable” organisation last month.

Open Russia said the five activists had been charged with an administrative violation for holding a public event without permission. They were released later in the day.

Chechnya’s strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov has dismissed reports of an anti-gay purge. His spokesman has suggested that there are “no gay people” in Chechnya, and that if there were their relatives would kill them.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed an inquiry into the reported crackdown on gay people in Chechnya, in the North Caucasus.

Earlier this month German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the Russian authorities to help protect gay rights.