The Council of Europe on Thursday accused Russian authorities of inflicting electric shocks, asphyxiation and other tortures on prisoners in an effort to suppress an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus.
Its report was released after Russia for the first time authorised the publication of findings gathered by the council’s committee on torture on a 2011 trip to Chechnya, Dagestan and North Ossetia.
Russia is fighting an insurgency in the region by armed rebels aiming to establish an Islamic state in the mountainous and predominantly Muslim region.