This is rather alarming.
According to multiple media outlets and human rights groups, Chechen leader and ally of Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, has just authorized a concentration camp for men “suspected of being homosexual.” It is the world’s first concentration camp for gay people since Hitler’s camps established in the 1930s.
According to European analyst and former State Department staffer Paul Goble, the concentration camp is located in former military headquarters in Argun. The reports come just one week after government officials in the region were accused of detaining and murdering gay men.
Chechnya (a.k.a. the Chechen Republic) is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus, in the southernmost part of Eastern Europe, about 60 miles from the Caspian Sea. It has a population of about 1.2 million people.
Police have been preying on gay men using social media, luring them onto dates and then arresting them. According to Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper known for its criticism of the Russian government, the men are being given an ultimatum: promise to leave the republic or be killed. The goal, the paper says, is “the complete cleansing of Chechnya from men of non-traditional sexual orientation.”
One former inmate claims police demanded he pay them bribes in exchange for his survival. Another says he and several others were tortured in an effort to force them to divulge the names of other gay men they knew.
“We are working to evacuate people from the camps,” Svetlana Zakharova, from the Russian LGBT Network, tells MailOnline. “Some have now left the region. Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.”
The government, however, insists no such purge is underway. Why not? Because, it says, there simply are no homosexuals in Chechnya. ”
“You cannot arrest or repress people who just don’t exist in the republic,” a spokesperson told the state news agency Interfax.
But Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, Russia project director for the International Crisis Group, says otherwise.
“The story is very much developing,” Sokirianskaia tells MailOnline. “Victims are escaping.”
Related: How Trump’s love for Putin is allowing the Russian right to export anti-LGBTQ hatred
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Muslim run concentration camps. Call them what they are and stop supporting these barbarians flooding into America.
barkomatic
It’s quite likely that some of the victims are also Muslim so you’d be opposed to Muslim gays fleeing here? I think we should and provide refuge for liberal Muslims fleeing these oppressive regimes.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Only if they disavow the cult. All of the terrorists that have hit America after 911 are second generation so obviously the cult is the problem, not where they live.
DCguy
I love the attempt to try to claim this is a Chechyn issue.
Um, it’s a province under Russia’s control, Putin has given the ok, and this leader is a staunch Putin Ally.
So Trump’s pal Putin is the one testing out the next phase of his anti-lgbt agenda.
ChrisK
You have a point but this isn’t exactly a peaceful loving people either. Constant wars and genocide is their history. Atrocities on both sides.
canadalaw
You might want to forego the healthysexuals ad on this piece , its a little inappropriate.
ChrisK
When an official says a minority doesn’t exist that’s a prelude for genocide. A country ruled by bloodthirsty Islamic monsters.
Xzamilloh
No… it has nothing to do with Islam… apparently, Islam is NEVER to blame and somehow it’s racist to even say so, except the majority of Muslims in Chechnya are white, so….. yeah. No shock that Orthodox Christianity and Islam when practiced are like twins
DCguy
Except that this guy is an ally of Putin, and they are using Russia’s anti-lgbt laws as the excuse to do this, AND he has Putin’s buy-in on it.
I’m not sure why there is the desperation to try to keep this off of Putin’s back here.
Here is an article from a British Newspaper from 2015 calling the Chechyn leader “Putin’s CLOSEST Ally”. saying he even orchestrated the murder of a Putin opponent.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/putins-closest-ally-and-his-biggest-liability
ChrisK
DCguy I agree that Putin plays a part but I’ve seen religious zealots in that country do some pretty horrendous things. Ever heard of the Dagaston 7. That’s just to name a few.
Islam is big there and we all know how they feel about us. If Russia played a part in I’m sure they were more then eager to carry it out. Either way you look at it it’s a f*cked up place. Hate and religion. I don’t see much hope anytime soon.
ChrisK
@Xzamilloh
Yeah, I always refer to places like that when these fools try to make it into a race issue.
ChrisK
Right now gays are the favorite scapegoat. Jews still are but it’s not ok to send them to concentration camps these days.
DCguy
Trust me, I’m not saying that conservative Islam is anything but an enemy of lgbts, however, in this instance, it’s coming right when Russia’s economy is in the toilet, and the world media is talking about Putin and Trump colluding and Russia just has large anti-government Corruption protests all over the country. This sounds like Putin lashing out to find a group to attack to distract his citizens from all of his problems.
Chechnya is just taking the Russian Anti-LGBT laws to Putin’s eventual goal. The first being making it illegal to be open or you are arrested, the next step in a genocide is to arrest anybody even suspected of being in that group. This is a Putin move and he shouldn’t be allowed to not be tied to it.
CommentByMale
How do we go about rescuing these men? We can comment and argue of who is orchestrating this, but lets get them rescued, get info from the imprisoned, then take out the evil that is making this horror occur.
Xzamilloh
Wow, why did no one else think of that?? Good thing you’re here, First Lieutenant Obvious (There’s already a Captain Obvious on this board)
WindsorOntario
Xzamilloh there’s no need to be a bitch. Some people are genuinely concerned and frightened by this especially since the mainstream media has made no mention of this. What’s happening is truly a situation in which there’s little to nothing we can do at this moment.
Xzamilloh
Yeah, there is plenty of need to be a bitch about it… this is the hole the regressive left has dug and now LGBT people of other nations are stuck dealing with it. Chechnya is a majority Islamic population, and even though Putin had a hand in creating the anti-LGBT legislation and rhetoric, what is happening there goes hand in hand in what is happening in other Islamic countries. Anticipating the “What about Christianity” argument, yes, there are Christian countries in Africa where being LGBT is a punishable offense, but that is the exception, not the standard. Good luck with the mainstream media mentioning anything about Russia that isn’t related to Trump.
Besides, after the Orlando massacre, the regressive left showed their true radical Islam-apologizing colors and sold us up the river to protect their narrative.
Xzamilloh
And I sound like a some crazy teavangelical right wing fanatic, I don’t care. My stance on the harm of religion has never changed and won’t just because it’s Islam.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Took you long enough but I guess you had more important things to report on
scotty
agree. took them about a week too long.
Stilinski26
Just a little reminder to all the gays living in Western Liberal countries how lucky you all are.
seaguy
Wonder if this has come up in pillow talk between Putin and Trump?
Xzamilloh
Not that I care about anything Trump, but the recent events in Syria definitely threw a monkey wrench in the whole “Trump/Putin” love affair angle… because the airstrikes in Syria were definitely a no-no for Russia.
DCguy
I’m sure the national media will pay a lot of attention to this story……….just as soon as they’re done reporting on some tweet Trump made, or running shows for hours talking about how sweet Mike Pence and his Wife are.
Kieran
Hard to believe this could be happening in a country that is 99% Muslim. Shocking.
ErikO
Nobody should be surprised that Muslims are making this happen.
ErikO
President of the Chechen Republic Razman Kadyrov, who introduced Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority region, has been accused of earlier human rights violations. That is the key factoid missing from the news accounts of this atrocity. The homophobia is Islamic.
scotty
i am very surprised that any self respecting gay man would come out as chechen.
Sluggo2007
There is a small bodega in Brooklyn about a block from me. The owners and staff are all Muslim. I have sucked off each and every one of them multiple times.