The Memorial Human Rights Center published a report, “Enforced Disappearances in Chechnya.” It states that Russia leads Europe in the number of enforced disappearances in the 21st century. This is largely due to the fact that a cruel system created by the state has been operating in Chechnya for more than two decades. Thousands of people became its victims, many of whom disappeared without a trace.

Illegal prisons, cruel treatment of those kidnapped or illegally detained, torture and extrajudicial executions remain integral attributes of the regime in the republic. Various government departments and authorities of Russia are involved in the system, human rights activists point out.

Memorial documented the disappearance of more than 1,250 people in Chechnya between 1999 and 2001. (subsequently, the bodies of some of them were discovered). Then, at the beginning of the Second Russian-Chechen War, monitoring was carried out only in a limited part of the republic. In 2002-2009 Human rights activists have collected information about the abduction by state agents of 1,976 residents, for each of whom there is more or less detailed information. From 2009 to the present, the established tactic of “selective disappearances” has been maintained in Chechnya. Employees of “Kadyrov’s” security forces use a kidnapped person to force him, through torture and threats, to give the testimony they need against himself and others.