The new one is under attack again

Statement by Novaya Gazeta in connection with open threats made to the editorial office:

“On April 1, Novaya Gazeta reported on the mass detentions and torture of residents of Chechnya suspected of having a non-traditional sexual orientation. We know the names of the three dead, and we also know that there are many more people killed. Extrajudicial killings, the so-called "honor killings", are also carried out by the relatives of the victims ...

The reaction that followed the publication about the persecution of Chechen homosexuals causes the editorial staff to seriously fear for the safety of not only individual journalists, but also all the employees of Novaya Gazeta without exception.

took place in the central mosque of Grozny On April 3, three days after our first publication, an emergency meeting of representatives of 24 Chechen virds, Islamic theologians and Chechen public opinion leaders . According to official figures, 15,000 people attended the meeting. At this meeting, Adam Shahidov, adviser to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, publicly accused the staff of Novaya Gazeta of slander and clearly identified "enemies of our faith and our homeland." The speech by Shahidov, as well as other Chechen theologians, was broadcast on local television and widely distributed on the Internet, provoking a wave of intolerant statements on social networks.

As a result of this meeting, a resolution was adopted. The second paragraph of this resolution openly and directly calls for violence: “In view of the fact that the age-old foundations of Chechen society and the dignity of Chechen men, as well as our faith, have been insulted, we promise that retribution will overtake the true instigators, wherever and whoever they may be , without a statute of limitations.

It is clear to Novaya Gazeta that the current wave of repression is not unique to today's Chechnya. The level of violence in the republic has increased dramatically over the past three years, and this is directly related to the lack of a full-fledged investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov, which, in fact, got away with the masterminds of this crime. Impunity for this particular crime gave rise to their complete confidence in their own invulnerability.

Silence and inaction in such a situation makes everyone who is able to do something, accomplices. That is why Novaya Gazeta continues to work in Chechnya. But we are very aware of the high price we can pay. The uninvestigated murders of our colleagues, Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, are clear evidence.

We insist: the reaction to journalistic work voiced at the meeting in the central mosque is unacceptable in a civilized society and must be assessed from the point of view of Russian law. We call on the Russian authorities to do everything possible to stop actions aimed at inciting hatred and enmity towards journalists performing their professional duties.

The editors of the "Novaya Gazeta"

PS On April 8, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, officially addressed the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Yuri Chaika, with a demand to oblige the Investigative Committee of Russia to strictly comply with Russian laws, namely, to conduct an audit in accordance with Articles 144-145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation on facts testifying to committing serious crimes.

On April 10, ten days expired from the moment Novaya Gazeta published the facts of mass persecution of Chechen residents because of their homosexual orientation. Exactly how many days the law gives the Investigative Committee of Russia to respond to a report of a crime. We have not received any information about the reaction of the Investigative Committee of Russia to our publication. Therefore, on April 11, Andrei Sabinin, a lawyer for the international human rights organization Agora, filed a complaint with the Basmanny Court of Moscow demanding that the inaction of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin be recognized as unreasonable and illegal and oblige him to eliminate the committed violation.