ECHR upholds Novaya Gazeta's complaint against threats by Chechen officials

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled against Chechnya’s leadership for threatening Novaya Gazeta and its staff over a 2017 investigation into reports of mass extrajudicial executions of gay men in the republic.

The ECHR issued its ruling on Tuesday.

In April 2017, Novaya Gazeta reported about the detention of more than one hundred men in Chechnya on suspicion of homosexuality, their torture, and the killing of at least three of them.

These reports elicited a sharp reaction from the Chechen authorities, with Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov and Mufti Salakh Mezhiev issuing statements containing direct threats against the journalist who had authored the reports, Elena Milashina, and Novaya Gazeta’s management.

Milashina was twice attacked in Grozny and has also received numerous personal threats from unidentified people in Chechnya, including death threats on social media, and was forced to temporarily leave Russia. Appeals to law enforcement agencies regarding the threats were unsuccessful.

The ECHR found that the applicants had been subjected to violations of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms — namely, the right to respect for private life and the right to freedom of expression. The court ordered Russia to compensate Novaya Gazeta with €7,500 ($8,000), and Milashina, the head of the editorial board, Dmitry Muratov, and the head of the newspaper, Sergei Kozheurov, with €9,800 ($10,000) each.

Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe and refused to honour the ECHR’s rulings after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In February 2020, Milashina and her lawyer, Marina Dubrovina, were attacked in a hotel lobby in Grozny.

In July 2023, she and lawyer Alexander Nemov were also severely beaten by a group of armed men on their way out of Grozny Airport as they travelled to attend the trial of Zarema Musaeva, the detained mother of noted Chechen opposition bloggers.

Milashina sustained serious injuries, including broken bones in her hands. A criminal case was launched into the incident, but the investigation was suspended in February 2025 due to ‘failure to identify the person to be prosecuted’.

Reports of the harassment and killing of members of queer people in Chechnya have continued since initial reports of mass abductions in 2017. International organisations such as Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Committee, and others have repeatedly reported on violations of queer rights in the region.

Amidst disturbing reports of mass persecution of queer people in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov notably said in 2017: ‘we do not have such people’.

Chechnya

North Caucasus

Russia

European Court of Human Rights

Chechnya’s Anti-Gay Purge

Queer Rights

Elizaveta Chukharova •

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Liza was born and raised in Vladikavkaz and now lives in Prague. She has previously worked for RFE/RL, ASTRA, Belsat, and others. She is currently completing her Master's degree in Russian Studies at Charles University in Prague, specialising in the study of military and inter-ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus. In her free time, Liza shoots feature films, writes about cinema, and travels — she has visited exactly 50 countries and is not going to stop there.