Hello friends, We are now almost 400,000 people -- and all of us demand immediate action and investigation into the mass murder and torture of gay men in Chechnya. We are united, strong and we will stop this! We are told repeatedly Chechnya has never seen so much pressure before. And we know that we can do a lot more. So big thank you for standing with us. Now, important updates: - Last Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin backed an inquiry into a reported crackdown on gay people in the republic of Chechnya, in the North Caucasus. He said he would personally ask the prosecutor general and the interior minister to check the reports. This happened thanks to all your efforts and efforts of activists in Russia and abroad. - Earlier last week German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week urged the Russian authorities to help protect gay rights. Separately, Foreign Ministers of UK, Netherlands, Sweden and France called on Putin to react. - Chechen officials still deny gay people even exist in the republic, amid reports of arrests and torture. We have already pushed hard the authorities to account. This is why it is so important to continue to work in two directions at the same time: 1 - Continue to push the Russian authorities to respond and react 2 - To ensure that victims and those who are in danger in Chechnya have an opportunity to escape. HOW CAN YOU HELP? 1 - Please continue to spread the word about our campaign. We are doing our best to reach out to more media, elevate the voices of the victims and find new ways to pressure Putin and Kadyrov. We are almost 400,000 people -- it's huge -- imagine if we were 1 MILLION? Please invite your friend to sign this petition! Please copy this petition link in your social media: www.change.org/chechnya100 2 - Please continue to reach out to your Foreign Ministry in your country. It is VERY important that these Chechen men get visas, because they need to leave the country. As far as we know only few managed to leave so far. Find your Foreign Ministry here: https://www.usip.org/publications/2008/03/foreign-affairs-ministries-web, go to their contact page and in informal way ask them to make sure they give free and easy visas to these men. Thank you so much, we are strong and together!! Igor, Nikita, Artem