Ramzan Kadyrov
The head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov commented on the information about the persecution of residents of Chechnya journalists of “Novaya Gazeta”. For questions about these reports, he said during the festival, “Shashlik-Mashlik”, reports “Interfax” on Saturday, April 22.
“Who saw it? Let them investigate and punish the guilty, if any. Please, let them take the culprit. If there is such a powder. This is nonsense, they themselves do the advertising, they get a dime from Western sources. They are not interested what will happen with Russia”, — said Kadyrov.
According to the head of Chechnya, the magazine’s staff is not in danger. “The clergy passed a resolution to reassure the people of the Chechen Republic, that, Yes, there are such people, cultureless, immoral. What are we supposed to be sympathetic to these people, if you can call them people. And no danger could be,” he said.
Kadyrov also called the newspaper materials about the persecution of gays in the Republic of PR campaign. “Where do they get their argument about the secret prison? All human rights defenders in the North Caucasus went to look, there is no such case”, — he assured.
The article “Novaya Gazeta” about the persecution of Chechen residents suspected of homosexuality, was released on 1 April. According to journalists, to torture people placed in a special prison, where forced to hand over names of other gays. It was also reported that several people were killed. 13 April, the newspaper wrote about the threats in his address, and after a few days in the newspaper received an envelope with white powder of unknown origin.