RFE/RLSun, 07 May 2017 12:20 UTC
© Aleksandr Astafyev/TASSRamzan Kadyrov, Head of Chechnya
Chechnya's strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov said late on May 5 that he is "ready to closely cooperate" with Kremlin officials looking into reports of alleged persecution of gay men in the republic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the day that he would personally "talk to the prosecutor-general and the interior minister" to ask them to help Kremlin rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova check out the reports, which have drawn international condemnation.
"Chechnya is keen to make it known to Western politicians who speak out on this topic, including Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, that all their statements on the matter are baseless," Kadyrov told Russian media.
But while he is ready to cooperate with the investigation, he said,
"the West has been inflating this topic," and asserted -- as he has before -- that Chechnya doesn't have any gay people.
"Chechen society does not have the phenomenon called nontraditional sexual orientation. Its people have lived for thousands of years according to different rules laid down by Allah," he said.
Comment: Notice how the West never misses an opportunity to demonize Russia or Putin no matter how tenuous the accusations, yet there not a word is spoken regarding Saudi Arabia's persecution of gay men. It's all about "evil Putin" and his henchmen.
This original theme of torture and executions of gays in Chechnya was propagated by journalists of "Novaya Gazeta", publishing names of GayRussia.com activists, with assertions that the activists claim not to have made. The NG publication has since been sued by the activists of GayRussia.com, stating - "We [the organisation] never gave any information in regard to torture and executions of gays in Chechnya."
[...]
The journalists of "Novaya Gazeta" may have become hostages of a scam organized by Russia's "LGBT Network". In their mailbox, (kavkaz@lgbtnet.org), the same victim stories have been found that were published in "Novaya Gazeta". Now, this same organization is raising funds for victims at a special website. Donations are being collected for the emigration of Chechen homosexuals, from US $ 10 to unlimited - you can also arrange monthly transfers.
LGBT activist, Nikolay Alekseev, has called it "the most ambitious financial scam in LGBT history of Russia." Alekseev, in his post on Facebook wrote that it is very easy to collect donations, with the help of the media. But in the end, suggests Alekseev, the funds raised in the defense of Chechen gays "end up in unknown pockets, and the situation with LGBT rights in Russia remains unaddressed."
Comment: Notice how the West never misses an opportunity to demonize Russia or Putin no matter how tenuous the accusations, yet there not a word is spoken regarding Saudi Arabia's persecution of gay men. It's all about "evil Putin" and his henchmen.