Russian LGBT Network Steps Up Efforts To Get Gay Men Out Of Chechnya
Police in Chechnya have been reportedly cracking down on gay men. Some have been imprisoned and tortured. David Greene talks to a representative of the Russian LGBT Network, which is helping the men.
More than a hundred gay men have been rounded up by the police in the Russian republic of Chechnya. That's according to reporting by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. So far, the Kremlin has turned a blind eye to this, though German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week urged Vladimir Putin to intervene.
There is an NGO that has been working to get gay men who've been targeted out of Chechnya. It is the Russian LGBT Network. And I spoke with that group's communications manager via Skype. We should say we are not using her name because of the sensitive and dangerous nature of her work. She started by telling me how these men have been treated.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Well, they're telling us that they are beaten. Sometimes some people are beaten to death. And also people are saying that they're tortured with electric current, they are not fed properly and they don't have any water.
Audio interview and transcript here:
http://www.npr.org/2017/05/09/527540962/russian-lgbt-network-steps-up-efforts-to-get-gay-men-out-of-chechnya
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Putin is a great, strong leader, so this is okay. If you say otherwise, you are a Clinton shill and sell-out for the military-industrial complex. 
At least according to the alt-left and alt-right. I wish alt-* would just move to Putinland already and leave us alone. I'd gladly take all the Russian LGBTQ refugees in return!
I'm glad Merkel called Putin out on this one, just like Hillary did earlier. No word yet from the so-called leader of the free world, as far as I know?
