A Council of Europe official tackled Chechen officials about reports of the torture and detention of gay people, during a rare visit to the Russian republic Saturday. Frank Schwabe, a member of the Council´s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) raised the issue with officials in Moscow and in the Chechen capital Grozny. “There are very serious reports about violations against women, against LGBT people and about illegal detentions” in Chechnya, he told AFP. “We cannot accept it,” he told AFP. A scheduled meeting with the majority-Muslim republic´s strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, did not go ahead. But the meeting he did have was nevertheless “an important sign of the renewal of dialogue”, said Schwabe. It was the first such visit since Russia returned to the Council of Europe´s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in June this year and the first visit to Chechnya in nine years.