Russia’s foreign minister has sought to downplay allegations of abuse of gay men in Chechnya, saying there is “not a single concrete fact” in the case despite mounting evidence collected by human rights group and Russian journalists.

Newspaper Novaya Gazeta first raised the issue of LGBT persecution in April in a report that suggested dozens of men were being abducted, tortured and in some cases killed because of their sexuality.

Commenting on those reports, which were corroborated by a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation published on Friday, Russia’s top diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, said: “We don’t see one concrete fact… on the issue of accusations of rights abuses of LGBT representatives in Chechnya or other parts of the Russian federation.

“There is not a single concrete fact, there are no surnames. If there are facts, if there are surnames, then our answers will be concrete.

“But I repeat that we have no relation to the overwhelming majority of the allegations.”

HRW said last week it had spoken to six former detainees who said Chechen officials, including two high-level figures, were complicit in the humiliation and torture of illegally-held inmates suspected of being gay.

Their captors were said to have exposed them to their families as gay and encouraged their relatives to carry out “honour killings”.

Human Rights Watch report confirms 'gruesome' extent of gay persecution in Chechnya

A spokesman for Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, called reports of abuse “absolute lies and disinformation” and said "you can't detain and repress people who simply don't exist in the republic”.

Meanwhile, Mr Kadyrov rubbished the “false claims” and invited the French President and German Chancellor to visit the region.

"It is not right to accuse the Russian media of slander while your opinion is based on false information,” he said in a post on his Telegram account.

“[Emmanuel] Macron may take [Angela] Merkel with him and come to the Chechen Republic to find out the truth. Our door is open.”

Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper that first broke the story, reported that the total number of murdered gay men in Chechnya had risen to 26.

International outcry over the killings has forced Russian officials to investigate claims of a state-sponsored purge.