Whereas, on April 1, 2017, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that authorities in Chechnya, a republic of the Russian Federation, had abducted, detained, and tortured over 100 men due to their actual or suspected sexual orientation; Whereas multiple independent and first-hand accounts have subsequently corroborated the Novaya Gazeta report, and describe a campaign of persecution by Chechen officials against men due to their actual or suspected sexual orientation; Whereas, as a result of this persecution, at least three deaths have been reported and many individuals have been forced to flee Chechnya; Whereas Chechen officials have denied the existence of such persecution, including through a statement by the spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov that You cannot arrest or repress people who don’t exist in the republic. ; Whereas the same spokesman for Ramzan Kadyrov has also stated that If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return, and credible reports indicate that Chechen authorities have encouraged families to carry out so-called honor killings of relatives due to their actual or suspected sexual orientation; Whereas Chechnya is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation and subject to its laws, and Ramzan Kadyrov was installed as the leader of Chechnya by Russian President Vladimir Putin; Whereas Chechen authorities have a long history of violating the fundamental human rights of their citizens, including through extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and torture of government critics; Whereas Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports of persecution in Chechnya and termed them phantom complaints ; Whereas Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova, has also claimed that such reports should not be believed because formal complaints have not been registered with the appropriate authorities