Human rights organizations and Russian media outlets are reporting that gay men are facing a wave of violence and imprisonment in Chechnya. Human Rights Watch says dozens of men have been rounded up in recent weeks and subjected to torture and beatings. The Russian LGBT Network, based in St. Petersburg, says men have been tortured with electric shocks and cables and that three people have been killed since the crackdown began. A Chechen government spokesperson has denied the reports, saying gay men “simply don’t exist in the republic.”