Members of Congress urge Trump to condemn gay Chechnya crackdown

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied claims that gay men are killed in his country, denying that any even exist there.

Allegations about the violence directed toward gay men in Chechnya first appeared in April, when the crusading Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta released a story including interviews with men who said they had escaped the violence and with LGBT support groups that had assisted them.

'This is nonsense. We don't have those kinds of people here.

"We have no gays, and if there are, take them in Canada".

In his interview with HBO, Kadyrov seems to have little concern about what Americans might think about Chechnya.

"God damn them for what they are accusing us of", he says.

Kadyrov's initial response is to laugh. One of the men said he had been tortured over the course of several days. "The Point", said Mr. Putin told his French counterpart that he had taken "measures to ensure the full truth" about the fate of homosexuals in Chechnya.

When asked whether he is troubled by the accounts, Kadyrov replied: "They are devils. They are not people", he says. As quoted in The Irish Independent, Kadyrov's spokesperson Alvi Karimov claimed, "You can not detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic".

Kadyrov is a well-established political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom you will remember Trump cozying up to at the G20 Summit. "Let them be cursed for what they say about us", Kadyrov said, referring to the media that he claims is slandering his name.

Kadyrov also has some strong words for reporters and activists who have been covering LGBT rights in Chechnya. "They will answer to the Almighty for this.". "The lives of hundreds of Chechens are at stake and it is vital that the USA uses its full leverage to pressure Russian authorities to end these atrocities, conduct a fair and open investigation and prosecution of these crimes, and swiftly work to provide a safe haven for the marginalized".

The latest interview with the leader of Russia's Chechen Republic, where he dismissed the United States as too weak to be Russia's enemy, has been widely cited in the media. "We are ready to give up our lives for our state", he wrote.