The staff of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta are literally afraid for their lives.
This is the subject of an editorial published yesterday on behalf of the newspaper in response to a resolution that came down from an assembly of Islamic theologians and public leaders in Chechnya, itself a response to the newspaper’s explosive report on how gay men in Chechnya were being systematically targeted for abuse, imprisonment, and murder.
Let’s back up a bit: you’ve all probably heard by now about these accusations, which puts at least a hundred gay men in various “black site” prisons, some murdered on-site, others released and facing the possibility of “honor killings” in their communities once the information becomes public. Novaya Gazeta first broke this story on April 1 in a preliminary report, including statements from Chechen secret services insiders that described the sting operation as a “preventative cleanup,” in part to retaliate against activists who’d planned to hold a series of pride parades in various areas of the North Caucasus. Chechnya’s president (and noted cat-loser) Ramzan Kadyrov famous replied that there are no gay people in Chechnya: if there had been, their families would have killed them already.
Three days later, Novaya Gazeta followed this up with a massive dump of sources and information, subtitled “Stories by Surviving Witnesses.” It’s a harrowing and difficult read (and there are photos, so be warned), but the testimony and evidence are so overwhelming that the editors felt confident enough to make this blunt appeal to the government (trans. mine):
Whether [one of the subjects described] is alive or not, only the Investigative Committee of Russia can determine. But we’ve noticed a sad trend over our many years of appeals to the ICR with allegations of crimes: the Investigative Committee of Russia registers any allegation of crime (which the Law on Mass Media automatically considers any such publication, especially those that include information about violent death) as an appeal and then fails to follow up on them.
With this in mind, we intend to appeal to the Prosecutor General of Russia with a demand to force Bastrykin, chairman of the ICR, to conduct an investigation of our publications, in accordance with Art. 144-145 of the Russian Criminal Code. If Prosecutor General Chaika makes this request, the Investigative Committee of Russia will have no further ability to ignore the law. If the prosecutor himself does not make this request, we will have the occasion to bring him to justice for inaction.
But while Novaya Gazeta was preparing its sources for this follow-up piece, an incensed Chechen leadership met in Grozny for an emergency assembly on what they described as “absolute lies and slander.” A group of some 15,000 religious and political leaders met, and representatives of the 24 wirds (Sufi communities) passed a unanimous resolution condemning Novaya Gazeta for their piece. Though paragraph 4 of the resolution calls on all good Chechens to combat this misinformation “in all possible (legal) ways,” the newspaper editors were understandably concerned about paragraph 2:
Given that the centuries-old foundations of Chechen society and the dignity and faith of Chechen men were insulted, we promise that retribution will find these instigators, wherever and whoever they may be, and however long it may take.
In response, the editorial board of Novaya Gazeta again called on the Russian government to take action in the face of what they argue is an obvious threat of violence, particularly given the history of retaliation against journalists working the Chechnya beat. “The message was clear,” they write. “The resolution encourages religious fanatics to commit violence against journalists.” In the meantime, the story’s lead reporter, Elena Milashina, has gone into hiding (and not for the first time).
This appeal is not without some bitterness, though, as the editors note that the government’s failure to investigate other high-profile killings (Nemtsov, Politkovskaya, Estemirova) has emboldened the kind of people who believe this is a legally safe means of retaliation. “Their full confidence in their own invulnerability grew out of impunity for [Nemtsov’s murder],” they argue. Why should they expect differently now?
Editor-in-chief Dmitri Muratov appended his own letter to the mufti of Chechnya, arguing (quite rightly) that nothing in the piece constituted an “insult to the Chechen people or their faith” and welcoming open dialogue between the newspaper and the republic’s leaders. They seem unmoved.
And the ICR still has not responded to requests for investigation of the Novaya Gazeta pieces. The law requires them to do so within ten days. It’s been thirteen.
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Some further reading in English, since most of the sources above are not:
- Tanya Lokshina (one of the writers I suggested you follow), summarizes the situation for Human Rights Watch and provides some corroboration for Novaya Gazeta’s reports.
- Direct statements of witnesses at Russia LGBT Network’s English-language mirror.
- Reasonably comprehensive set of links and information by Anna Nemtsova at the Daily Beast.
- update: Chitown Kev adds the Guardian’s report on this story in his comment below.
And plenty more, but since Novaya Gazeta and HRW are the primary sources, most reports will just link back to their work, though some are doing follow-up by interviewing the people involved. Still good to see this story garnering so much attention, though. As the editors of Novaya Gazeta note in their letter:
Silence and inaction in this kind of situation make those capable of doing anything at all complicit.