Last week, the United States placed sanctions on the Terek Special Rapid Response Team along with five other individuals over allegations of human rights abuses, including the torture, and extrajudicial killings of LGBTI people in Chechnya. The sanctions were announced by the U.S. Treasury under the Magnitsky Act and included suspects in the deaths of Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Among those who had sanctions imposed on them is Abuzayed Vismuradov, commander of the Terek unit in Chechnya and president of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov’s MMA fight club and promotion.
Vismuradov was accused by the U.