Shooting of people in Chechnya January. Mass executions of gays in Russia. Chechnya is Russia, or no longer

According to the newspaper, a total of about 200 people were detained, some of them were charged under various articles of the Criminal Code, including illegal arms trafficking and participation in an illegal armed group. A source in the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs gave the publication a list of those detained in January. most of them were taken by law enforcement agencies in the village of Shali - 28 people. For journalists " Novaya Gazeta»It was possible to establish the addresses of these people, but their fate remains unknown.

The editorial staff of Novaya Gazeta cannot say for sure whether an "extrajudicial execution, unprecedented in its scale," actually took place on the night of January 26. At the same time, according to unconfirmed information of the newspaper, there may be even more killed - 56, however, the newspaper does not provide additional details on this score.

Kremlin reaction

The first comments from the Kremlin came two hours after publication. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov that the Kremlin took note of the information of Novaya Gazeta.

“Yes, we saw these reports that were published in one of the newspapers, we took them into account, as well as the refutations of this information, which were made by the internal affairs bodies of the Chechen Republic. The information is rather anonymous, the sources of information are not clear, ”he said.

Reaction in Chechnya

The refutations, which Peskov speaks about, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, Chechnya's Minister for National Policy, Foreign Relations, Press and Information, Dzhambulat Umarov. According to him, the information about the mass execution in the republic is a "lie" with a "political connotation", and he called the publication itself a "burst of unhealthy imagination" of the author of the material.

Dzhambulat Umarov (Photo: Said Tsarnaev / RIA Novosti)

“This so-called article you are talking about is another round and a burst of unhealthy imagination [of the author of the article] Ms. Milashina, who, apparently, wants to further develop this long-forgotten topic [persecution of gays in Chechnya]. Well, this is Milashina's case, ”he added. According to Umarov, "the fantasies of Milashina and her colleagues from Novaya Gazeta have become so impoverished and exhausted that they again and again return to the scandals they were the authors of."

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has not yet commented on the publication.

Novaya Gazeta's investigation into the persecution of gays in Chechnya

In April, Novaya Gazeta published an article by journalist Elena Milashina, which spoke about the mass detentions of men suspected of homosexuality in Chechnya. According to her, the detainees included representatives of the Chechen muftiate, “including well-known, influential and close to the head of the republic, religious figures,” as well as two well-known Chechen TV presenters. In addition, the journalists reported that they knew the names of three killed men suspected of non-traditional sexual orientation.

A few days later, Novaya Gazeta reported that gays detained in Chechnya were being sent to "secret prisons." One of these prisons, according to the newspaper, is located in the city of Argun. The interlocutors of the newspaper said that the detainees were beaten, tortured with electric current and, at best, released for a huge ransom.

The Chechen authorities denied the accusations, stating that there are no gays in the republic and never were. “I will not be surprised if tomorrow they come up with a story about the oppression of Martians or troglodytes,” said Chechen Minister for National Policy, Foreign Relations, Press and Information Dzhambulat Umarov. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that there is no persecution of gays in Chechnya, moreover, there are no gays in the republic either. “For thousands of years, the people have been living according to other rules that are prescribed by the Almighty, dictated by the norms of morality and ethics of relations between people,” he said.

At the same time, human rights defenders said that they had taken 40 people out of Chechnya, who had been harassed by the local population and the authorities. Russian LGBT activists reported that about 80 Chechen gays turned to them for help.

At the end of May, ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova announced that she had sent a request to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, about the possible persecution of gays in Chechnya.

Reaction of human rights defenders

Moskalkova RBC, who received information about executions in Chechnya from Novaya Gazeta back in March 2017 and she had already reported this to President Vladimir Putin. She also noted that she had sent a request in connection with this information to the Investigative Committee and the authorities were conducting a verification of the information.

Moskalkova added that the authorities had established that two people from Novaya Gazeta's list did not live in Chechnya, and that the data on other people was being checked. The Commissioner for Human Rights noted that it is being carried out "more slowly than it could."

Tatiana Moskalkova (Photo: Dmitry Serebryakov / TASS)

Chairman of the Human Rights Council (HRC) Mikhail Fedotov said that he had no information about executions in Chechnya before the publication of Novaya Gazeta. “As for Chechnya, we are dealing only with the old story about people with non-traditional sexual orientation, and in this regard we have specific promises from the head of Chechnya, the Investigative Committee is engaged in this. And we have no new information about the executions, ”he said.

At the same time, a member of the council, the chairman of the Committee against Torture, Igor Kalyapin, told RBC that information about mass shootings in Chechnya was known to him even before the investigation by Novaya Gazeta, but was based on rumors.

“But these were rumors, and we cannot use rumors as a basis for our work. Moreover, we have information about other episodes in Chechnya, when people were detained and went missing, but we cannot verify them yet, ”he said.

According to Kalyapin, the Committee against Torture will be able to get involved in the work if the relatives of the victims apply there or if the Investigative Committee starts checking the publication. “And then we will be happy to see that this check is carried out efficiently,” Kalyapin added.

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“Yes, we saw these messages, which were published in one of the newspapers, we took note of them, we also took note of the refutation of this information, which were made by the internal affairs bodies of the Chechen Republic. The information is rather anonymous, the sources of information are not clear, ”the press secretary said.

It should be noted that earlier the Chechen Minister for National Policy, Foreign Relations, Press and Information, Dzhambulat Umarov, said that he viewed the investigation of Novaya Gazeta as “another piece of disinformation directed against the Chechen Republic”.

“I am absolutely sure that this is a lie, not supported by any arguments, sources or evidence, which has a very definite and very bright political coloring. I have always talked about this and will repeat it again.<…> This is another round and a burst of unhealthy imagination of Mrs. Milashina [the author of the investigation], who, apparently, wants to further develop this long-forgotten topic, ”Umarov said.

On July 9, Novaya Gazeta published the names of 27 people who were shot in Grozny without charge. According to the newspaper, the arrests began on December 17, 2016. The detainees were placed in basements and back rooms of police departments, charges were not brought against them, but within a month and a half under pressure they themselves gave confessions. In total, about 200 people were detained, the newspaper writes. A study of the lists of detainees indicates that the decision to kill was made spontaneously.

Novaya Gazeta insists on the initiation of a criminal case, within the framework of which it will be possible to verify the reliability of these facts.

Let us remind you that on April 1, Novaya Gazeta published an article about mass arrests, torture and reprisals against people of homosexual orientation in Chechnya. The publication referred to anonymous sources in law enforcement agencies, as well as to the victims, whose names were not disclosed. The publications caused a wide resonance in society both in Russia and abroad. The head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, called the articles of Novaya Gazeta "provocative." Later, he said that such publications were a "massive information attack" on Chechnya.

Attention! The material contains images of strictly 18+

Update 18:00

Mass detentions in Chechnya after the state of emergency in the village of Naurskaya

According to the "Caucasian Knot", after the attack on the military unit No. 3761, the relatives of the killed Chechens were detained. Detentions also took place in other settlements in Chechnya, in particular in Chernokozovo and Grozny.

A source in the power structures of the North Caucasus Military District did not confirm to Interfax the fact of mass arrests. Literally, the source said that not a single person was detained.

However, Isa Minazov contacted Novaya Gazeta and said that around midnight on March 24, his nephew Rizvan Ramzanovich, 89th year of birth, was detained in Grozny. Armed men in the uniform of security forces came to his apartment, where he, his wife and two small children (2.5 years and 11 months) live. There were people in civilian clothes with them. They did not introduce themselves, did not show either an arrest warrant or a search warrant. Rizvan Minazov was detained without explanation, his phone, computer, as well as his wife's phone were illegally seized. To all questions about what caused the arrival of the security forces, an officer in civilian clothes said in Chechen that "they will sort it out on the spot."

On the morning of March 25, Rizvan Minazov's wife turned to the local police officer, but the police officer did not know which security officials and why Minazov had been detained and where he was.

Through contacts with law enforcement agencies, Minazov's relatives managed to find out that Rizvan was taken to the village of Naurskaya and that his detention could be related to an emergency that happened on the night of March 23-24 in military unit No. 3761.

Rizvan Minazov's relatives plan to make official statements addressed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin and to the hotline of the Internal Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation with a statement about the abduction and illegal detention of their relatives by unidentified Chechen security officials.

According to the official version, confirmed by the press service of the National Guard, on the night of March 23-24, six residents of the village of Naurskaya (identified) attacked military unit 3761. During the "shootout" the attackers were liquidated, six National Guard servicemen were killed and three were injured. However, the official version about the attack on the National Guard unit stationed in the village of Naurskaya raises serious doubts. Novaya Gazeta obtained unretouched photographs of the Chechens allegedly killed in the course of the "clash". These photographs were taken at the scene by one of the members of the investigative-operational group. The photographs clearly show that all the "attackers" were killed in almost the same way - by a shot in the head.

Novaya Gazeta showed these pictures to forensic experts, criminologists and ballists. The interviewed specialists did not have any contradictions in their judgments about the nature and method of injury. Experts confirmed that the people in the photographs were shot almost point-blank; all of the killed had an entrance bullet hole located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe auricle.

Killed attacker

"Typical" Chinese execution ". So both sides fighting in the Chechen campaigns called the execution of prisoners of war

(by analogy with the public executions in China, which are characterized by two signs: mass and the method of murder - the victim is on his knees, and the executioner shoots in the head, most often in the back of the head).

There are no other bullet wounds, apart from wounds to the head, on the bodies of the Chechens who allegedly "attacked" military unit 3761. These photographs practically disavow the reports of the armed clash that took place on the night of March 23-24, and at least indicate that all the "attackers" were detained alive.

Of particular interest is a photograph of a killed Chechen with a fake improvised explosive device (IED). (The fact that the IEDs were not real was officially confirmed by the National Anti-Terrorism Committee.)

One of the attackers on the military unit. Operational shooting

On the victim's left hand, a smooth fresh bruise is clearly visible, resembling in its appearance a strangulation groove from handcuffs. It is also clearly visible that the IED is tied to the body of the deceased - with yellow tape OVER fresh stains from the ground, grass and blood on the "attacker's" jacket.

In fact, this means that someone has already strapped the IED to the "militant" corpse.

If there was no clash (and the photographs of the killed Chechens are objective confirmation of this), then the question arises: under what circumstances were nine servicemen of military unit 3761 killed and wounded?

Novaya Gazeta has information on the nature of the injuries of the four guardsmen. Major S. (all surnames are in the editorial office) was diagnosed with open craniocerebral trauma and lacerated wounds to the head and face. Senior Lieutenant S. received a gunshot wound to his right thigh, and Private I. received a tangential gunshot wound to the knee joint.

It is also known that at least one of the six victims - Senior Lieutenant Ermolaev - died from gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach.

However, according to a prosecutor who was directly involved in the inspection of the scene, the Chechens who "attacked" military unit 3761 were armed only with sticks and knives.

This fact is confirmed by the official reports of the National Guard (see photo). That is, the Chechens did not have firearms with them.

The attackers had no firearms

According to the official version of the National Guard, the "attackers" failed to penetrate the territory of the military unit and take possession of the soldiers' weapons. Thus, it is not clear under what circumstances the soldiers of the National Guard received gunshot wounds and who actually shot them.

According to Novaya Gazeta, military unit 3761 is served mainly by servicemen sent from other regions. According to information from the residents of the village of Naurskaya, there may have been a conflict on ethnic grounds between local Chechens and servicemen of military unit 3761. This could have caused a showdown, during which the Chechens could be detained. However, this version still does not clarify the circumstances of the injury and death of nine guardsmen.

Information on the killed from the databases of the professional account

For many years, Novaya Gazeta regularly published information about the massacres in Chechnya. The motives for the persecution of the inhabitants of the republic were very different. In early April, Novaya Gazeta published facts testifying to the massive persecution, torture and murder of residents of Chechnya on the basis of their homosexual orientation ...

After December 17 last year, mass detentions of people began in Chechnya. In early January, special operations were carried out in Grozny, Kurchaloyevsky and Shali districts of Chechnya, during which mass arrests took place. The detainees, however, were not formalized in any way, they were not charged, and instead were placed in basements and back rooms of police departments. The detentions continued until the end of January; in total, according to the newspaper, about 200 people were detained.

Novaya Gazeta carefully monitored these events and repeatedly wrote about the fate of the detainees. So, on January 12, we published the names of those detained after a special operation in the Kurchaloevsky district. Some of the people on this list were “legalized” only on February 20. This means that they were formally arrested only a month and a half after the actual detention. These people were formally charged with illegal arms trafficking (Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), units were added 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (participation in an illegal armed group).

We believe that during a month and a half of illegal detention, confessions were obtained from these people under pressure, which are often the only evidence of guilt in Chechnya. It is easy to be convinced of this by raising criminal cases, which are now being investigated by the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Chechnya ...

In the course of the journalistic investigation, we were able to obtain from a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Chechnya a list of residents detained in January. We were also able to correlate the detainees with the following settlements in Chechnya:

Shawls (28 people),
Kurchaloy (9 people),
Tsotsi-Yurt (11 people),
Mayrtup (6 people),
Germenchuk (3 people),
Komsomolskoe (1 person),
Avtury (2 people),
Staraya Sunzha (4 people),
Serzhen-Yurt (2 persons),
Belgatoy (1 person).

Comparing this document with the list of the alleged killed, transferred to the TFR by Novaya Gazeta, we found out the fate of 21 more people who were detained and subsequently, according to our information, killed. The largest number of arrests took place in Shaly; we managed to establish the addresses of Shaly residents from the list. But all attempts to find out something about the fate of these people ran into the incredible fear of our interlocutors. One of them, an employee of the Shalei city administration, panickedly refused to get acquainted with the names of the Shalins who had been identified by us and said:

“Everyone who was detained in Shaly in January is no longer there. Don't look. "

At the moment, we already know about 27 allegedly killed (see the list of Novaya Gazeta at the end of the article), although, according to our information, we are talking about 56 residents of Chechnya. All these people were detained at different times (we managed to establish the dates of detention of thirteen detainees - January 9, 10, 21, 24). However, according to our information, all these people have the same date of death. Night from 25 to 26 January.

That night, all the detainees were held in Grozny on the territory of the deployment of the patrol and guard service of the police named after Hero of Russia Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, which is headed by Police Colonel Aslan Iraskhanov. At this time, on the territory of the PPSP them. A. Kadyrova, according to the testimony of a relative of one of the victims, an influential Chechen official who managed to find out the circumstances of the disappearance of the detainees, were

first Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Chechen Republic Apti Alaudinov,
commander of the SOBR "Terek", head of the personal security of the head of Chechnya Abuzeid Vismuradov (nickname "Patriot"),
commander of the PPSP them. A. Kadyrova Aslan Iraskhanov
and the chiefs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Chechnya of those regions where the detainees were registered.

According to the information we have, those detained that night were shot and taken to various cemeteries, including Christian ones, and buried in hastily dug graves (some burial places are known to Novaya Gazeta).

A careful study of the lists of detainees leads to the conclusion that the decision to carry out an extrajudicial execution was made centrally and, oddly enough, spontaneously. However, this is how key decisions are made in today's Chechnya ...

Let's emphasize. Despite the fact that our information was confirmed by two sources (in the investigation department of the Investigative Committee for Chechnya and in the administration of the head of Chechnya), we cannot say that on the night of January 25-26, an extrajudicial execution, unprecedented in its scale, even for Chechnya, took place in Chechnya.

But we can insist on initiating a criminal case, within the framework of which it is not so difficult to verify these facts. First, we gave the Investigative Committee of Russia more than enough facts about the personal details of the victims. Secondly, exhumation and posthumous forensic medical examination of corpses is quite capable of revealing traces of bullet wounds - they remain on the bone remains forever ...

With our repeated and now public appeals to the Investigative Committee of Russia, we are trying to convey to the country's leadership and the investigation evidence that leaves little doubt about the existence of an active practice of extrajudicial executions in Chechnya. We are sure that it was the long-term connivance of this practice that made the massive persecution of gays in Chechnya possible. And if this practice is finally not harshly stopped, next time we will face an even more defiant crime than killing people just because someone found their sexual orientation unacceptable.

We publish these facts because the state, represented by authorized law enforcement agencies, has left us no choice. For two months we hoped for a cooperation that was effective at the very beginning. Today it is already obvious that the Investigative Committee of Russia is giving up its positions on this situation exactly the way it passed them in the case of the murder of Boris Nemtsov. That is why we are publishing a list of those who, according to our information, became the victims of the most terrible extrajudicial execution in Grozny. And now the investigation, which refers to the absence of living applicants, will have to deal with special witnesses.

Because only the dead in Chechnya have nothing more to fear.

List of "Novaya Gazeta"

Abdulmezhidov Adam Isaevich, born May 27, 1987
Abumuslimov Apti Khasanovich, born 02/06/1989, Shali, Shkolnaya street, 16.
Abdulkerimov Said-Ramzan Ramzanovich, born on March 25, 1990, registered at the village of Kurchaloy, Dokhtukaev Street, 18.
Alimkhanov Islam Alievich, born June 7, 1998
Abubakarov Adam Dzhabrailovich, born 05.05.1995
Bergaev Ismail Shadidovich born on August 19, 1998
Dasaev Adam Ilyasovich, born June 16, 1988, Shali.
Dzhabaev Zelimkhan Khizirovich, born December 18, 1993
Ilyasov Adam Khuseinovich, born September 22, 1997
Lugaev Rizvan Said-Khamzatovich, born September 13, 1987, Shali.
Malikov Rizvan Agdanovich, born on 01.06.1990
Muskiev Mokhma Turpalovich, born on July 19, 1988, registered at the village of Tsotsi-Yurt, Novaya Street, 10.
Muskhanov Temirlan Akhmadovich, born April 28, 1986 Shali, Chicherin street, 2.
Ozdiev Usman Vakhaevich, born on 24.12.1989, registered at the address: Shali, Groznenskaya street, 39.
Rashidov Doku Ibrahimovich, born May 30, 1995
Siriev Magomed Musaevich, born February 23, 1993
Ismail Ezer-Alievich Soltakhmanov, born on March 30, 1994, registered at the village of Mayrtup, Nuradilov Street.
Suleimanov Magomed Arbievich, born on 03.01.1987, Shali, Kavkaz village, house 8, apartment 4.
Tuchaev Ahmed Ramzanovich, born on February 23, 1987, Shali, Shkolnaya street, 30.
Khabuev Khamzat Slaudinovich 14.02. Born in 1993
Khakimov Alvi Aslambekovich, 16.11. Born in 1992
Khamidov Shamil Akhmedovich, born November 14, 1986
Tsikmaev Ayub Sultanovich, born on 02.04.1984, village Germenchuk, Molodezhnaya street.
Shapiev Muslim Isaevich, born on November 28, 1989, registered at the address: Shali, Kutuzov Street, 12.
Eskarbiev Saykhan Vakhamsoltovich, 23.05.1992
Yusupov Sakhab Isaevich, born January 19, 1990
Yusupov Shamkhan Shaikhovich, born June 17, 1988, registered at the village of Kurchaloy, st. Soviet, 11.