Ekaterina Bhoi, senior adviser to Russia and Eurasia to the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Chechnya, said Russia’s claim of responsibility for the attack was “ridiculous and absurd.”

“The UN experts’ visit to Chechnya is the most urgent to ensure the safety of human rights monitors in the republic and to support accountability, including through their continued presence in Chechnya,” Bhoi said.

“We are deeply concerned about the repeated abduction of human rights inspectors.”

Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said the Russian government shouldn’t claim to be in Chechnya to protect human rights unless Russia genuinely wants to deter terrorism.

“I think Russia is using this trip as a campaign to sell itself to the international community as a partner in fighting extremism and the international community as an antagonist, as if they are defending the people of Chechnya. It shows the same level of disdain for reality and values that these abductions are meant to convey,” Whitson said.” It isn’t about protecting human rights; it’s about Russia’s desire to try and demonize activists critical of their own government’s human rights violations.”

The delegation also visited the Baku Center for Human Rights in Azerbaijan because of its role as an international rights watchdog.