Russia's Investigation into Chechnya's Anti-Gay Atrocities Ends with Claim of 'Nyet'

Less than two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his public support for an investigation into the reported abuse of gay men in the Republic of Chechnya, officials in the Russian Federation are claiming that there are "no victims."

Dmitry Alushkin, the press ambassador for the Russian embassy in Israel has dismissed claims that a secret "gay concentration" camp exists in Chechnya. In a letter to Israeli news outlet Ha'artez last week, he "identified" the building that experts insist is a torture facility, as a "storeroom."

"Authorized official government bodies of the Russian Federation, in cooperation with the government of the Chechen Republic, investigated the claims made by journalist Elena Milashina in her articles published in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and in other Russian media outlets," Alushkin wrote.

"In the building -- which in the past belonged to the military government (address: 99B Kadyrov Street, in the city of Argun) and called in the articles a 'secret prison' -- is a storeroom, while a parking lot is located on the nearby space."

Alushkin's explanation of the building and it's use is stark contrast with Milashina's Novaya Gazeta report that stated that the building was one of at least a half-dozen prisons being used to torture gays in Chechnya.

"There are no victims of persecution, threats or violence," he adds. "Neither law enforcement authorities nor the [U.N.] Human Rights Council... have received complaints on this matter," Alushkin wrote.

News of the reported abuse of gay men in Chechnya broke in April by the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The grisly details of the report said about 100 suspected gay men were rounded up and tortured, and at least three were killed. Since that report broke, news has surfaced that families have been encouraged by officials to turn in or murder their own suspected gay relatives.

After outrage from the international community, Russian president agreed to Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova's request to form a group in Moscow to investigate the treatment of gays in Chechnya.

According to a May 5th AP report, Putin agreed to investigating what he called "the well-known information, or rumors" about what is happening to people "with a non-traditional sexual orientation."

Russian officials have consistently played down the Novaya Gazeta report and subsequent testimony of men who allege they escaped the abuse. Mokalkova herself said she doubted such abuse took place.