Report: Authorities Kidnapped Man in Moscow, Interrogate him in Chechnya Over LGTBQ+ People

A report from the Russian LGBT Network alleges that a Russian man named Ibragim Selimkhanov was kidnapped in Moscow, then taken to Chechnya and interrogated for information about LGBTQ+ people, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

"The group said on August 25 that four Chechen-speaking men abducted Selimkhanov in mid-May in the Russian capital and brought him by plane to the Chechen capital, Grozny, where he was questioned regarding the Russian LGBT Network's associates who assist gays in the North Caucasus," the news story said.

The kidnapping was described by the New York Daily News as a snatch-and-grab style operation, with the four men reportedly wearing civilian garb, confronting Selimkhanov outside a subway station, and taking "his passport, phone and apartment keys.

"They then forcibly took him by plane" to Grozny, the Daily News added.

His interrogators "wanted information on activists who work with the Russian LGBT Network and assist LGBTQ people in the North Caucasus region, in southwestern Russia," the Daily News went on to report.

After being held in custody by Chechen authorities for "days," Selimkhanov was put in the care of his mother, the news article said. Though under surveillance, Selimkhanov managed to leave Grozny and made his way back to Moscow, where he file da complaint with the police.

Unsurprisingly, Russian authorities "refused to investigate his complaint," the news outlet said.

Chechnya is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation led by virulently anti-LGBTQ+ strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Daily News recalled that since 2017 Chechnya has ramped up its anti-LGTBQ+ persecution. After a number of men were reportedly rounded up on suspicion of being gay, interrogated, tortured, and some even killed, LGBTQ+ Chechens began fleeing. A "rainbow railroad" formed to help them escape persecution.

Earlier this year Russian authorities appeared to have collaborated with Chechen counterparts in the abduction of the two gay brothers, Salekh Magamadov, 20, and Ismail Isayev, 18, who were snatched from their apartment in Novgorod following their flight from Chechnya in June of 2020. Neighbors said they had seen police wearing "black uniforms" in the building on the day the brothers disappeared. The Network theorized that these were OMON members, the Russian equivalent of a SWAT team.

The brothers fled Chechnya once again, and Chechen authorities arrested 20 of their relatives in a fruitless effort to locate their parents, who had also fled.

Chechnya's purge of LGTBQ+ people followed enactment of a 2013 Russian law that criminalizes discussion of, public support for, or expressions of LGTBQ+ issues, under the rubric of "protecting" children.

A Russian LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Sphere, recently published a children's book, pointedly placing a "warning label" on the cover to indicate that it was intended for audiences over the age of 18. The edition was intended to underscore the absurdity of the Russian "no homo promo" law.