Police in Karachay-Cherkessia have arrested at least 16 men on criminal charges of organizing the activities of an extremist organization, the human rights group SK SOS reported April 30, citing a source.
The detained men had been members of a local VK group focused on queer dating — one of the few LGBTQ+ groups in Karachay-Cherkessia that had not been blocked, according to the human rights activists.
Officers came for one of the men on April 27, searching his home and reviewing his messages and photos in the group before bringing him to the Investigative Committee, where he found roughly 15 other men already in custody.
Most of those detained are young men; two others are around 40 years old, the source said. At least one detainee was beaten at the Investigative Committee, the source told the human rights activists.
Over the past three years, Russia has intensified its persecution of LGBTQ+ people following the Supreme Court’s November 2023 ruling declaring the “International LGBT Movement” to be “extremist” (the movement does not actually exist). Criminal cases on extremism charges have since been opened repeatedly across the country.
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