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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe anti-gay purge in Chechnya must be stopped
THE ADMINISTRATION of Russian President Vladimir Putin has never disguised its disdain for lesbians, gay men, and anyone else it deems to have a nontraditional sexual orientation. Yet in a nation with an open disregard for human rights, recent events have taken an even more disturbing turn. A Russian opposition newspaper is reporting that more than 100 men who are gay or perceived to be gay have been arrested and detained in the Russian republic of Chechnya in the past month. It is believed some have been tortured, and at least three men killed.
Antigay tensions intensified last month when GayRussia.ru, a gay rights group based in Moscow, applied for permits to hold rallies in the majority-Muslim North Caucasus region. Not surprisingly all were denied, but the requests alone fueled antigay protests. Shortly thereafter, male teenagers and adults began to disappear.
In Chechnya, the command was given for a prophylactic sweep, and it went as far as real murders, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported.
Chechen authorities call these accounts absolute lies and disinformation. Bizarrely, Alvi Karimov, a spokesman for Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, claimed the story is false because there are no gay men in the republic. You cannot arrest or repress people who just dont exist in the republic, Karimov told the news agency Interfax. If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2017/04/22/the-anti-gay-purge-chechnya-must-stopped/dq0WH7QdHklwVppOWgFgVP/story.html
shenmue
(38,503 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)But I wouldn't mind at all if Putin and Kadyrov were bombed back to the stone ages. The worst human beings on earth.
Johnny2X2X
(18,745 posts)This is genocide and the world needs to stop it. We do not have the leadership now in America to even mention it. This is a tragedy.
Initech
(99,915 posts)Fucking assholes.
stillsoleft
(80 posts)spanone
(135,636 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)This is a human rights crisis and needs to be stopped immediately. Where is Amnesty International?
HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)My understanding was that Russia was getting its butt kicked by them and bought off the local equivalent of Tony Soprano to back down. In which case the solution is bribery.
rollin74
(1,952 posts)Calculating
(2,954 posts)But that's just me.