SK SOS: Chechen law enforcers threaten, blackmail locals into going to Ukraine war

Chechen law enforcers send local people to the Ukraine war using threats and blackmail, SK SOS, a group helping LGBT people in the North Caucasus, reports, citing five of its proteges.

The human rights defenders say Chechen law enforcers had a way of making money before: they detained people in the street for made-up reasons and then released them on ransom.

Now they force the detained individuals to go to the Ukraine war, threatening to send them to prison or persecute their family, SK SOS says.

“This is a very effective idea from them.

People are facing a choice: either you go to prison for eternity, or you go to Ukraine.

And what if the person has a big family? If you don’t go to Ukraine, we’ll set up your brother and send him there, they say,” one of the proteges told SK SOS.

People who were earlier detained for drug usage, drinking, criticising the authorities, or being an LGBT person, are at greater risk.

The detained individuals are getting beaten and forced to bear false evidence against their friends. SK SOS knows this happened on three occasions:

• a man was detained for a road traffic offence; men demanded that he set up “three guys who are into drugs”

• a woman was detained outside Chechnya; law enforcers demanded that she find “three Chechens who are into drugs”

• police officers detained a young woman and threatened to find her brothers and send them to the war if she won’t obey their demands

In addition, the Chechen security forces send those who are illegally kept in basements to war. These are special prisons that contain “drug addicts”, LGBT people, and dissidents. They are kept there without any legal reason or record, so they are considered free people in law terms.

Among the sources of SK SOS there is one person who was in one of these basements at the time when the mobilisation started. He said that the security forces would enter the “prison” and ask: “Who wants to go to work? We’ll let you go today." The source says that, initially there were 70 people in the basement, but after a few months only 20-25 remained: the rest of the prisoners left for the war as “volunteers”.