The US Department of State has banned Muslim Khuchiev, the Chairman of the Chechen Government, to visit the USA, under allegations that he is involved in human rights violations.

“We note that a recent report produced under the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism concluded that Chechen government officials have committed serious and ongoing human rights violations and abuses with impunity, engaging in harassment and persecution, arbitrary or unlawful arrests or detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions”, reads the official statement. The US authorities also called on their Russian counterparts to hold Khuchiev and other Chechen officials responsible for these human rights violations.

Ramzan Kadyrov, who is also on the USA’s ban list for entry since 2012, said that the introduced ban will not harm Khuchiev at all and called the decision of the US Department of State a "humorous performance". "He (Khuchiev) lived without any visits to the United States and will keep on living without them", said Kadyrov.

Such kind of response from the USA is in accordance with the OSCE report on the human rights situation in Chechnya, issued in December 2018. According to the report, torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and other “very serious” human rights violations and abuses had happened in Chechnya. The victims of these violations included members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, human right defenders, lawyers, independent media, and civil society organizations.