Sixteen men detained in Karachay-Cherkessia over LGBTQ dating group as organiser faces extremism charges

Sixteen men have been detained in Karachay-Cherkessia following a targeted crackdown on an LGBTQ dating group hosted on the social media platform VKontakte. On 27 April, the detainees were brought before the Investigative Committee after being identified as members of the online community, according to the rights group NC SOS.

Reports shared by the rights organisation indicate that police conducted a search of one member’s home and coerced him into unlocking his mobile phone to surrender private messages. Upon his arrival at the Investigative Committee, he discovered 15 other men had been swept up in the same operation. ‘Most were young, apart from a couple in their forties,’ he said.

The witness described a harrowing atmosphere during the interrogations, which commenced at 08:35. Detainees were taken for questioning individually, one man who refused to cooperate was handcuffed and led into a private office. ‘We could hear shouting from inside, as if he was being beaten,’ the source remarked. When the man eventually emerged, he was visibly bloodied and bruised.

By 30 April, local Telegram channels confirmed that Interior Ministry officers in Karachay-Cherkessia had ‘suppressed the activities of an extremist cell’. Authorities characterised the detainees as ‘adherents of LGBTQ ideology’ who engaged in ‘non-traditional practices’ and promoted values ‘contrary to traditional family structures’. A criminal case has been opened against the alleged ‘organiser’ on charges of managing an extremist organisation.

This operation follows a pattern of escalating judicial pressure in the region. In December 2025, a 50-year-old resident of Cherkessk was sentenced to two and a half years in a general-regime penal colony. The court found that his comments in a Telegram chat bore ‘psychological signs of promoting non-traditional sexual relations’ and ideas of ‘permissiveness and immorality’ deemed inconsistent with the ‘spiritual and moral values of Russian society’. He was further accused of facilitating meetings for same-sex couples in North Ossetia and convicted of participation in an extremist organisation.

In a related case, a 57-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz remains under prosecution in connection with the same Telegram group.