海角大神

By all accounts, Chechnya is a legal black hole.

In the聽former rebel Russian republic, human rights monitors聽are murdered, women are聽terrorized for rejecting Islamic dress codes, and Kremlin-backed local strongman Ramzan Kadyrov acts out聽his personal fantasies聽as if it were聽his private stage.

And then, over the past two months, news seeped out of the closed and locked-down region of聽, including torture, incarceration, and family 鈥渉onor killings.鈥�

Even for the Kremlin, that may have been too much.

This week an investigation team, headed by well-regarded detective Igor Sobol, arrived in Chechnya to examine the allegations of the anti-gay campaign. Should the investigation, which is still in its preliminary phase, move ahead, it could be a sign that Russian authorities are finally going to enforce Russian law in Mr. Kadyrov鈥檚 fiefdom, a nominally Russian but de facto independent territory.

Pressure on the Kremlin

It鈥檚 a horrifying story,聽聽by the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and stonewalled by the Kremlin. Up to 100 Chechen men were rounded up on suspicion of being gay. The prisoners were incarcerated, beaten, and according to Novaya Gazeta, up to 26 of them killed 鈥� in some cases by their own family members. Human Rights Watch today聽聽corroborating the Novaya Gazeta scoop.

Russian authorities have grown accustomed to turning a deaf ear to awful tales of life in聽the rebellious republic, which it turned over to Kadyrov in 2009 in exchange for the outward appearance of pacification.

But the tide appears to have turned two weeks聽ago,聽after German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally raised the issue in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shortly thereafter, the Kremlin authorized its human rights ombudswoman, Tatiana Moskalkova, to set up a 鈥減reliminary investigation鈥� team to look into the allegations.

鈥淭he authorities are now checking the facts about this, though I鈥檓 sure the people doing it face all kinds of difficulties,鈥� says Dmitry Muratov, editor of Novaya Gazeta. 鈥淚 think this is a good example of how a process gets started through reporting. We published about this, which prodded the rights ombudswoman to go to Mr. Putin with the information, and then it was reported on TV channels. We will only feel satisfied when the people we wrote about are all safe.鈥�

This week the Russian investigation team reportedly found only聽, covered over with debris, at the site of the camp where victims said they鈥檇 been held and tormented.

Though Kadyrov has publicly pledged to cooperate with the probe, he has also聽聽because there are no gay people in Chechnya. 鈥淐hechen society does not have this phenomenon called non-traditional sexual orientation. For thousands of years the people have lived by other rules, prescribed by God,鈥� he told Russian journalists.

鈥楾he price we paid for unity鈥�

Kadyrov may have been the source of one too many embarrassing distractions for Putin as he tries to revive Russia鈥檚 image on the world stage. Even strong Kremlin supporters are cynical about the deal Moscow made to bring peace to Chechnya after nearly two decades of war, which may have聽stabilized and rebuilt the ravaged republic, but left it outside the sway of Russian law.

鈥淭he price we paid for聽unity聽of the country is a compromise, Chechnya鈥檚 special form of existence, in which the Russian Constitution does not fully function,鈥� says Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Kremlin-funded Institute of the Commonwealth of Independent States. 鈥淐hechnya has been living at some distance from the Constitution, and still does.鈥�

According to Russia鈥檚 LGBT Network, a non-governmental rights group, about 40 of the persecuted Chechens have fled to the relative safety of Russia, where they are being carefully protected by the LGBT Network and other supportive civil society groups. Efforts to obtain refugee status for the men have reportedly run into bureaucratic roadblocks in Western countries,聽.

Russia has had聽its own anti-gay campaign, mainly directed against public displays of 鈥渘on-traditional鈥� sexual orientations. That has made life harder for the LGBT community, led to a rise in hate crimes, and聽invited condemnation聽from the West. But what is allegedly happening in Chechnya is so far outside the frame of Russian law and custom that it has shocked even some Russian social conservatives, and could prompt the Kremlin to finally act.

鈥淭he outcome of this investigation depends totally on the political will of the Russian authorities,鈥� says Igor Kochetkov, chair of the Russian Movement for Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities. 鈥淩ight now they are checking the facts [preliminary investigation] before a formal investigation begins, and it鈥檚 clear that Chechen authorities are resisting all their efforts. The basic question here, to be decided, is whether Chechnya is part of the legal entity called the Russian聽Federation,聽or is it not?鈥�