"There are No Homosexuals in Chechnya"

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Ramzan Kadyrov

The title is a quote from Alvi Karimov, the spokesman for Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Muslim Chechen Republic. It was said in reply to a claim made in a Russian newspaper that the Chechen government had launched a mass round up of homosexuals, detaining at least a hundred people and killing at least three.

Chechnya is technically a part of Russia, and Kadyrov is a quasi-ally of Vladimir Putin. The Russian-Chechnyan relationship has evolved to a point where as long as Kadyrov prevents terrorist attacks on Russian soil, he is allowed to pretty much do what he wants internally. As it happens, what he wants is to create an authoritarian Islamic state, with him as its head.

The allegation itself has not been confirmed. It could be Russian government propaganda. It also could be liberal or gay activist propaganda. Or, of course, it could be an honest mistake or exaggeration by one of those parties.

It also could be true.

I should note that Pink News has alleged that Putin himself gave the order for the sweep. Why Putin would give such an "order" concerning a separatist area that he has been on the whole fairly hands-off on was not explained.

But what makes the original story plausible are some recent statements made both by that Chechen government spokesman, as well as others.

Why are there no homosexuals in Chechnya? Karimov gave a pretty direct answer, on the record:

...because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.

This, shall we say, harsh stance was echoed by Kheda Saratova, a Chechen "activist" who serves on Kadyrov's human rights council:

I haven’t had a single request on [a gay rights issue], but if I did, I wouldn’t even consider it. In our Chechen society, any person who respects our traditions and culture will hunt down this kind of person without any help from authorities, and do everything to make sure that this kind of person does not exist in our society.

No returning.

Hunt down.

Make sure this kind of person does not exist.

Whatever one thinks of Russia's position on gay rights in general, or the unconfirmed (and in my view, almost certainly false) allegations of Putin's involvement in this particular incident, Vladimir Putin didn't create Chechen cultural attitudes towards homosexuals - an attitude which, merely going by the above, can be described as literally lethal.

Islam did.

But it is of course par for the course for liberals and even many gay activists to downplay or even ignore that part of the story. It's better for the narrative to make it about Putin.

And no, I'm not a Putin fan.

Putin kills dissidents.

Muslim Chechnya kills gays.

From New Europe:

Authorities in the Russian republic of Chechnya have launched an anti-gay campaign that has led to authorities rounding up men suspected of being homosexual. According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and human rights activists, more than 100 people have been detained and three men killed in the roundup.

Alvi Karimov, spokesperson for Chechnya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, described the report as “absolute lies and disinformation”, basing his denial on the claim that there were no gay people in Chechnya. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,” he told Interfax news agency.

“If there were such people in Chechnya, the law-enforcement organs wouldn’t need to have anything to do with them because their relatives would send them somewhere from which there is no returning.” ;

As reported by The Guardian, a spokesman for the region’s interior ministry told the Russian newspaper RBC that the report was “an April fool’s joke”.

However, Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, Russia project director for the International Crisis Group, told the Guardian she had been receiving worrying information about the issue from various sources over the past 10 days. “I have heard about it happening in Grozny [the Chechen capital], outside Grozny, and among people of very different ages and professions,” she said.

An LGBT rights organisation in St Petersburg has set up an anonymous hotline for gay people in Chechnya to seek help with evacuation from the republic.In a separate report, The Associated Press noted that the Kremlin-backed Kadyrov is widely accused of extensive human rights violations. He has brought Islam to the fore of Chechnya’s daily life, including opening what is called Europe’s biggest mosque.

Go Russia? Putin to Send 150,000 Troops to Wipe Out ISIS

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Our hero?

EDIT (3:15 PM CST): I think this is an interesting story, but the reports should be taken with a grain of salt, especially the first. There is no doubt that Putin is dialing things up in Syria. Whether or not this will end with 150,000 Russian troops on the ground is another question.

British newspapers, including the Daily Express have been closely following one  of the most extraordinary developments of the post-cold war world. It's hard to see how the military defeat (by anyone) of this murderous Muslim movement can fail to be a good thing. On the other hand, replacing ISIS militants with Russians and, if recent reports are to be believed, Iranians and Chinese is troubling for all sorts of obvious reasons. President Barrack Obama's weakness, incompetence and pro-Muslim sympathies have created a vacuum whose full impact is only now becoming fully apparent.

But if I were a normal human being, lying low in Palmyra or Raqqa,desperately hoping to live through the ISIS nightmare, guess who I would be rooting for right now?

There is ample fodder for the hopes and fears of everyone here.

October 5, by Scott Campbell:

End of ISIS? Putin 'sending 150,000 soldiers to Syria to WIPE OUT evil Islamic State' 

Vladimir Putin is preparing to send 150,000 troops to Syria in a bid to wipe out the evil Islamic State once and for all. 

The Russian leader is reportedly mounting an enormous military mission to take control of the terror group's stronghold of Raqqa. 

The city is the self-declared capital of ISIS in Syria and is patrolled by as many as 5,000 jihadi members. 

Putin is set to mobilise 150,000 reservists who he conscripted into the military earlier this week. 

An insider revealed: "It is very clear that Russia wants to sweep up the west of the country, taking Raqqa and all the oil and gas resources around Palmyra. 

"This is fast becoming a race to Raqqa – to secure the oil fields they need to cleanse the region of insurgents, and the IS capital is vital to do that." 

It comes a day after Russian jets obliterated nine ISIS outposts in just 24 hours using bunker-busting bombs. 

Russian jets pounded terrorist targets and blew up a command centre, potentially killing dozens of fighters. 

Confirming the successful raids, Andrei Kartapolov from the Russian army vowed to ramp up the pressure, saying: "We will not only continue strikes... We will also increase their intensity." 

And Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: "Over the past 24 hours, Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-24M fighter jets have performed 20 sorties and hit nine Islamic State installations. 

“A bunker-busting BETAB-500 air bomb dropped from a Sukhoi Su-34 bomber near Raqqa has eliminated the command post of one of the terror groups, together with an underground storage facility for explosives and munitions. 

"These and other highly exact means of attack in recent days have been used to target objects of Islamic State terrorists. 

"Command posts, stores of weapons and oil products, workshops where weapons of suicide bombers are made." 

Meanwhile a terrorism expert revealed to Express.co.uk that ISIS have vastly exaggerated their military strength and called on Western leaders to launch a co-ordinated fightback which would obliterate the hate group. 

Dr Afzal Ashraf said ISIS has become its own worst enemy with its campaign of terror against the West, which has prompted an international backlash. 

He said: "This mythical state will disappear in a matter of hours once the international community decides to act. 

"It won't take very long at all to drive them, if not out of all of Iraq or Syria, then certainly the majority of their territories. 

"They will hide in towns, but I would say do not to follow them as they would use innocent civilians as human shields."

October 6, by Nick Gutteridge:

. . . Putin sends in his most ruthless special forces killers to finish off jihadis 

VLADIMIR Putin has dispatched his most elite special forces team to Syria to hunt down and wipe out Islamic State (ISIS) militants. 

The Russian supremo ordered the deployment of soldiers from his fearsome Spetsnaz unit to root out and eliminate packs of fleeing jihadis. 

A battalion of elite paratroopers also ghosted into the war-torn country this week as Putin ramps up his assault on the Islamist fanatics and rebel forces fighting to topple dictator Bashar al-Assad. 

The deployment of the Spetsnaz - the elite of the elite in Russia's army who have to undergo a gruelling training programme to earn their stripes - is the latest example of the megalomaniac leader's ruthless determination to shore up the rule of his close ally. 

It is especially significant because many of the men have a deep hatred of jihadis from their time fighting in Chechnya's bloody civil war, when Islamist fanatics battling for independence carried out frequent atrocities against Russian citizens. 

Amongst the world's most efficient killers, they will now be tasked with mercilessly hunting down and slaying ISIS fighters and are also expected to play a role rooting out terrorist strongholds to be targeted by Russian bombers. 

The move comes after it emerged that Putin is set to send 150,000 troops to Syria to wipe out the evil hate group once and for all. 

His jets have waged a merciless bombing campaign against the jihadis in recent weeks, blitzing more than 50 facilities including a key command centre and a suicide belt factory. 

A military source told the Mirror: “They are extremely aggressive and highly trained. 

“They are there to mop up after air strikes, call in air strikes, go on extremely covert missions against rebels and ultimately wipe them out. 

“And they will not be as accountable as British or US special forces. They are there for one reason, to wipe out anyone threatening Assad. By any means. And by doing that they will be consolidating Russia’s position on the Med and in the Middle East.” 

It is believed that ISIS has already suffered crushing losses due to airstrikes and defections, with a leading terror expert telling Express.co.uk that they are now so weakened they could be defeated in a matter of hours. 

Putin began his aerial assault in Syria last week, with Russia launching dozens of airstrikes against ISIS and "other terrorist groups". 

However, Western leaders have reacted furiously to the intervention after intelligence suggested that hardly any of the raids have been targeted against ISIS. 

Putin is keen to shore up the rule of brutal dictator al-Assad, a long time ally whose power is threatened by rebel pro-democracy groups including the Free Syrian Army.