Chechen police are rounding-up, killing, gay men

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Are these Russian federal authorities, or local Chechen authorities? Horrific either way, but a very different scale and omen.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Chechnya is de facto a very autonomous (near-independent) part of Russia and is a much more severe dictatorship under local President (yes, that is his title) Ramzan Kadyrov than the rest of the country, and is both sufficiently brutal and sufficiently socially conservative that this news is unfortunately unsurprising. But, at the same time, this isn't a nationwide phenomenon.

That's what I suspected. Putin is awful, but I don't think he's "liquidating gay population" awful, at least not yet - and if he was, he wouldn't start in Chechnya.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Chechnya is de facto a very autonomous (near-independent) part of Russia and is a much more severe dictatorship under local President (yes, that is his title) Ramzan Kadyrov than the rest of the country, and is both sufficiently brutal and sufficiently socially conservative that this news is unfortunately unsurprising. But, at the same time, this isn't a nationwide phenomenon.

That's what I suspected. Putin is awful, but I don't think he's "liquidating gay population" awful, at least not yet - and if he was, he wouldn't start in Chechnya.

He's tolerating it.

Well, Putin is the furthest thing from a friend of the gay population, of course, but let's be honest, if he didn't "tolerate it", he would probably have to invade Chechnya to stop it.