On 15 April 2017 in an interview with The Washington Post Novaya gazeta journalist Elena Milashina said she had left Moscow because of threats made against Novaya gazeta staff following her reports on the persecution of gay men in Chechnya. Adam Taylor, writing in The Washington Post, reported: "This backlash had been sparked by an April 1 story from reporter Elena Milashina and her colleague Irina Gordienko. In March, Milashina had discovered evidence that gay men were being detained, tortured and even killed in an anti-homosexual purge in Chechnya. After spending weeks checking the story with her sources, Milashina says they could confirm that hundreds of people had been detained; at least three are now thought to have died."