The first reports about the arbitrary detention and possible extrajudicial killings of men suspected of being gay in Chechnya were bloodcurdling. The authorities began rounding up men after activists had sought permission to hold gay pride parades in other parts of the North Caucasus region, which is predominantly Muslim, according to a newspaper report and activists. At least three turned up dead. Some people reported being tortured.

Then came the baffling denial. “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,” Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Russian news agency Interfax.

This abominable crime by a Russian republic and its reprehensible cover-up warrant a strong response from Moscow and the international community. That would be a stretch for the Russian government, which is denying that there is evidence of any crimes and has sought to keep its own gay population invisible. In 2013, it enacted a so-called anti-propaganda law that criminalizes promoting or celebrating non-straight conduct and identity — while government officials claimed that all Russians were entitled to protection from discrimination and violence.