April 1, 2021, marks four years since the world at large was first made aware of Chechnya’s gay purge — atrocities committed against LGBTQ people within the Russian republic’s borders, a horrific, ongoing stratagem of abduction, detainment, torture and murder. Gradually rebuked by Western governments over the years as first-hand accounts began to emerge, Chechnya’s gay purge has largely been ignored — if not supported through omission — by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government. Located in the North Causcasus region of Southwest Russia, this quasi-independent “country within a country” is a war-torn region that has long been plagued by extrajudicial violence and murder. Chechnya is ruled under a conservative Muslim ideology, controlled by the iron fist of its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Kadyrov, who loves to both deny that LGBTQ people exist within Chechnya and also comment they should be wiped out of the region to keep Chechnya pure, professes a blind allegiance to Putin. In return, the Kremlin has funded Kadyrov’s police state and mostly turns a blind eye to human rights abuses, including Chechnya’s ongoing gay purge.