The foreign ministers of five European countries wrote a letter to Lavrov about the persecution of gays in Chechnya

The Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in connection with reports of the persecution of gays in Chechnya. It is reported by AFP.

The letter was sent on April 28th. It has not been officially announced.

In the letter, the ministers say they are "deeply concerned about the numerous reports by international organizations" about the persecution of gays in Chechnya, and call on the Russian government to "investigate these terrible allegations and guarantee the safety of the activists and journalists who deal with this."

“We call on the Russian government to use its influence with local authorities in Chechnya to immediately stop any persecution, provide assistance to the victims and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the letter said.

Update. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RBC that the department "saw only a public statement in the retelling of the media, but did not receive the letter itself."

• Reports of persecution of gays in Chechnya appeared in early April. According to Novaya Gazeta, which was the first to write about what was happening, in recent months more than a hundred people were detained and tortured in secret prisons in the republic on suspicion of homosexuality. At least three people were killed.
• The Chechen authorities call these reports false and deny that there are any gays in the republic at all. Representatives of the local clergy said that retribution would overtake the spreaders of this information. Novaya Gazeta considered these statements to be threats.