“I deeply regret attending this event,” Swank said in a written message to The Associated Press on Thursday. “If I had a full understanding of what this event was apparently intended to be, I would never have gone. Swank issued the message after the Human Rights Watch criticized her along with Belgian actor Jean Claude Van Damme and British violinist Vanessa Mae for attending a show that, it says, “trivializes the suffering of countless victims of human rights abuses.” Representatives for Van Damme and Mae have not responded to AP’s requests for comment. On Kadyrov’s 35th birthday on Oct. 5, his government organized a lavish concert in Chechnya’s provincial capital, Grozny, that has been restored after being flattened during two wars between Chechen separatists and Moscow since 1994. The celebrities as well as dozens of Russian politicians and pop stars showed up to congratulate and lavish Kadyrov with praise from a stage arranged between a gigantic mosque and a newly built business center. During the birthday show, Swank said that she had been taken by the Chechen government’s “passion to make peace and to make something beautiful.” She claimed in her apology that her invitation to the concert made no mention of Kadyrov’s birthday. At the show, Swank also appeared to be one of the few women to wear no headscarf even though women in Chechnya are compelled to adhere to an Islamic dress code. Those who refuse to obey have reportedly faced threats and harrassment from Kadyrov’s feared security forces.