The Kremlin expresses skepticism about a report that mass executions were carried out in Chechnya

On the night of January 26, Chechen police summarily executed more than two dozen prisoners in Grozny, according to a July 9 report by the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which published the names of 27 alleged victims, noting that the death toll could be as high as 56 people.

Sources told the newspaper that the detainees were held at a police patrol and checkpoint facility, and the decision to execute the group was apparently made spontaneously. Novaya Gazeta says several high-ranking Chechen officials were present when the killings began, including Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Apti Apaudinov, Abuzeid Vismuradov (a Special Police Forces commander and Kadyrov’s personal security head), police patrol and checkpoint commander Aslan Iraskhanov, and several local Chechen heads of the Russian Interior Ministry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the government is aware of Novaya Gazeta’s report, though he says it’s also received assurances from Chechen Interior Ministry officials that the claims are untrue. “The information is anonymous. The sources for this information are unclear,” Peskov said.

According to the television network Dozhd, the people allegedly executed in January were suspected of playing a role in an attack on Ramzan Kadyrov’s home village.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the president’s human rights commissioner, revealed on Sunday that Novaya Gazeta first informed her about the alleged executions in March, and she says she conveyed the allegations to Vladimir Putin when the two met in May. Moskalkova says she also asked Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee to study the information, and officials reportedly learned that at least two of the individuals on Novaya Gazeta’s list apparently didn’t reside in Chechnya at the time of the supposed killings.