When Max escaped torture in Chechnya, his next struggle was only just beginning
Content warning: This article mentions torture and physical and sexual abuse.
Maksim — Max for short — was the first survivor of the LGBTI+ purge in the Russian Republic of Chechnya to speak out about the abuse he had received.
This is what he told a press conference in Moscow four years ago:
“They kept beating me, shouting that I am gay and people like me should be killed. They put a plastic bag on my head when they took me out of the cell. They wrapped my head with Scotch tape, leaving only a slot to breathe through. They severely beat my legs and arms.”
Clearly under great emotional distress, he didn’t mention the rape. Or the verbal abuse and threats. Or the blood-smeared cell where he spent his 12 days in captivity.
He did say that when he escaped, his injuries were so severe that he could barely crawl.
If you’ve seen the award-winning film Welcome to Chechnya, then you will have witnessed his evacuation from Russia to a place of safety, thanks to the work of several organisations including Rainbow Railroad and the Russian LGBT Network. Together with his boyfriend, mother and family members, he was afforded protection in the west, where he remains.
It would be easy to think that life is easier for Max now that he has escaped from Chechnya, the state that abused him, and Russia, his home state that failed to protect him and then refused to hear or believe his story.
Certainly, he no longer faces certain torture and possible death because of his sexuality. But he’s faced immeasurable grief: his sister recently died of cancer, leaving Max the sole carer for her two children. And he’s gone through deep personal loss as well as the regular traumatic flashbacks to what happened in Chechnya.
He also faces, on a daily basis, an incredible financial struggle to survive. Although Max has the right to stay in his new home country, he has refugee status which severely limits the financial support he can get from the state — even for the children for whom he is now the legal guardian. And because Max doesn’t speak the language of his new home country he struggles to find work and Covid 19 restrictions limit his ability to learn the language. He has set himself up in self-employment, but this doesn’t begin to cover his costs and having to home school the children during the lockdown made a difficult situation even worse.
We’re not talking about a champagne-and-caviar lifestyle, either. His outgoings are meagre but essential, including psychological support which costs €200 each month and speech therapy for one of the children costing €100. Despite the living costs being essentials, the shortfall amounts to more than a thousand Euro each month. The state give him just 16% of his living costs. The rest he has to find himself — pretty much impossible — or from the already stretched civil society organisations that are supporting him.
Signs of hope
This summer, Max was invited as a guest of Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride and EuroGames to attend the events in the Danish capital, including a screening of Welcome to Chechnya. He found care for the children, and took the short flight to Copenhagen. His travel, hotel, food and drink all covered by Copenhagen 2021, it was hoped that Max would have the opportunity to experience the more welcoming and accepting side of LGBTI+ life.
The photographer — my friend Alessandro Tiberti Bertin — was just snapping away at visitors to the Copenhagen 2021 Closing Ceremony in Copenhagen’s Fælledparken, and caught this beautiful image of Max. Considering the contrast with the photo at the top of this article, it’s a photo that always brings a lump to my throat and often a tear to my eye. It’s firmly in my album of all-time great Pride photos.
It’s that look of sheer joy and contentment on his face, shimmering with glitter and proudly decorated with rainbows. It’s the way he is clapping, nervously but defiantly clapping. Defiantly and definitely clapping. It’s the comfort and safety he so obviously feels by the simple act of removing his shoes.
It’s the way he’s planted that rainbow flag in his shoes like he’s just damn well reached the North Pole.
But it’s also about the people around him. You can see the happiness, the fun, the party, the community. The people around him don’t know it, really, but they’re creating that community not only for Max but they’re creating it for everyone in that space. And for him, that’s huge: the first time he has ever experienced community. And, if only for a short time, a chance to escape from thinking about the struggles at home.
I’m sure his visit to Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride and EuroGames changed his life, and I was privileged to talk to Max again when we met at Belgrade Pride in September. But what he said there made me realise that being away from Chechnya is not enough to secure an easy situation for Max. In some ways, it is only his personal freedom that has become easier in the west: his financial position in his new home is far more perilous than it was in Chechnya.
We can all help Max have more ‘Copenhagens’
That’s why I’m asking you to donate to a fund to support Max in his new life, so that he and his family can live more freely and some of their financial struggles can be eased.
Whether €5 or €50, every cent will make a difference. Donations will be handled by the European Pride Organisers Association (an NGO registered in Belgium) and they will transfer 100% of the funds to an NGO working directly with Max. It’s done this way to protect his safety and location.
Max and his story matter to me. When the story of the abuses in Chechnya appeared in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, it touched and affected many of us, even those of us thousands of miles away. With colleagues from Pride in London, in April 2017 I organised the first protest outside a Russian embassy to highlight what was happening. That was almost five years ago, and we are in danger of forgetting Chechnya, and forgetting the past victims and those facing the abductions, torture and worse today. Max is the leading plaintiff in a case going to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge Russia’s failure to act to prevent abuses in Chechnya, and hopefully this will bring further light to the story.
But for now, please support Max, giving him the true opportunity to live the life he deserves. Help him to have that feeling he got in Copenhagen, but every day.
Click here to donate securely via GoGetFunding.
If you prefer, you can donate to Max via OutRight Action International, based in the US. A 5% fee is deducted.
Update — 18 November 2021
Thanks to the generosity of contributors to this appeal, Max has now received the first donations totalling €750. This was the message he sent this morning.
The target is still some way from being reached, so if you can please donate today. Thank you.
Disclaimer: I am an employee of Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride and EuroGames.
