Truttle doubts torment

The Commissioner for Human Rights to Tatyana Moskalkova doubts the reliability of information about the persecution of gays in Chechnya. The Ombudsman announced this at a meeting with the deputies of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Civil Society, Public and Religious Associations, Interfax reports .

“I have suspicions that this is a provocation, that this is a false denunciation,” Moskalkova said. “I’m not ready to draw these conclusions today, but the conclusions need to be drawn. What is it really, people have suffered, or does someone want to speculate on this?”

The Ombudsman noted that the absence of the names of people who allegedly suffered in Chechnya prevents the conduct of further verification. "I have the opportunity to personally leave, request, see their documents. The law on the protection of witnesses and the victims of the criminal process gives the possibility of confidentiality, security, only nine measures of protection," she said.

According to Moskalkova, she made five requests, including the Prosecutor General, the TFR, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to the prosecutor's office of Chechnya. All of them gave answers that not a single such crime was registered.

“I talked with the initiators, they say: they are afraid. It was indicated about the loss and two prisons with specific addresses in the city of Argun, that there are supposedly torture zones there. I, having interaction with human rights defenders, turn to them, to the journalists who work there, they go to the place, check every corner,” Moskalkova said.

On Thursday, the presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov also stated that the data of Novaya Gazeta is not confirmed. "We are talking about some phantom complaints, completely depersonalized," he said.

To the journalist’s remark that people can be afraid to complain in the open, Peskov emphasized that in this way it is impossible to take them under protection or verify their information. “This is a somewhat absurd situation. They are afraid that they will be taken under protection?” Presidential spokesman noted. “There are still no specific evidence of this, these depersonalized data. They do not help us in order to clarify the situation. We have information received from the head of the republic, we have no reason to believe in this situation and not trust.”

“The main thing is that, of course, the head of the republic noted that there can be no talk of any threats to journalists,” Peskov emphasized.

On Tuesday, Moskalkova said that the data of Novaya Gazeta to the present moment was not found confirmation . "I received all the answers to my requests from the Prosecutor General’s Office, from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office of the republic. They reported that there were no cases of the loss of people, appeals to them. The temporary content in which they examined every corner and did not find confirmation of the situation that is described in the Novaya Gazeta, ”Moskalkova said.

"My further check is complicated by the fact that I am not unknown to names, surnames, specific facts of violence against people. I asked for a correspondent who works in Novaya Gazeta, to transmit such data to me as much as possible. Today there is no these data," the Ombudsman said.

On the same day, the press secretary of the publication Nadezhda Prussenkova told Interfax that the newspaper has the names of the dead representatives of the LGBT community, as well as all the victims. “We will also call their names to the investigating authorities when they are safe,” said Prussenkova. She confirmed that the Ombudsman contacted the Novaya Gazeta journalist to receive information on this situation.

On April 1 and 5, two articles by Elena Milashina on the brutal persecution of gays in Chechnya were published in Novaya. The journalist wrote about mass detentions, torture and murders of homosexuals. Then, several media outlets appeared evidence of the victims of persecution from Chechnya.

Chechen officials reacted extremely sharply to publication. Thus, the Mufti of Chechnya Salah Mezhiev said that the authors of publications on the persecution of homosexuals would suffer "Allah's retribution." Adam Shahidov, Adam Shahidov, adviser to Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, on religious issues, said Novaya Gazeta journalists to ask for forgiveness on his knees if they could not prove the fact of persecution of homosexuals in the region. The head of the Chechen Minnationality, Dzhambulat Umarov, in appeal to the chief editor of the "new" Dmitry Muratov demanded an apology for publications .

In "New" they regarded statements made in Chechnya as a direct call for reprisal against journalists . On Monday, the press service of the Investigative Committee said that the department was checking information about threats to journalists of Novaya Gazeta and Echo of Moscow. At the same time, the press service noted that in the Investigative Committee of the Chechnya, "no appeals about the persecution of persons of non-traditional sexual orientation were received." Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Milashin reported that the TFR began to verify the facts of gay persecution in Chechnya published by the publication.

On Monday, Kadyrov said that a " massive information attack " is being conducted on Chechnya. “The most unworthy methods and forms are used, reality is distorted, attempts are made to denigrate our society, way of life, traditions and customs,” Kadyrov wrote. “People without shame and conscience will always speak the language of lies and slander.” On Wednesday, at a meeting in Vladimir Putin, Kadyrov called the "provocative" articles "about the Chechen Republic, about the people, about the events that we allegedly occur, detentions."