(Photo Credits: Kremlin.ru / CC BY -SA)
The US Department of State has blacklisted Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of the Chechen Republic, as well as his immediate family—his wife and two daughters, The Washington Post reports. This means that they are now prohibited from traveling to the United States.
The @StateDept publicly designates Russian national Ramzan Kadyrov for gross human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. We will not hesitate to use all the tools at our disposal to ensure accountability for these violations.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 20, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained the move in a statement which was released on Monday—July 20, 2020. The statement reads, “The Department has extensive credible information that Kadyrov is responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights dating back more than a decade, including torture and extrajudicial killings.”
Pompeo added, “We will encourage likeminded countries to take similar measures.”
This is not the first time that a sanction has been imposed on Kadyrov who is also a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In 2017, the US blacklisted Kadyrov under a 2012 law called Magnitsky Act which had frozen his bank accounts and got his visa banned. In a separate move, 16 OSCE countries, including the US, have invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism in 2018 to “look into credible allegations of serious human rights violations and abuses in Chechnya allegedly committed during January 2017 to November 2018 against LGBTI persons, human rights defenders, members of the independent media, lawyers and others.”
Today, Secretary Pompeo said they are concerned that Kadyrov is “now using the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic to inflict further human rights abuses on the people of the Chechen Republic.”
The Washington Post added that Kadyrov responded to the US Department of State’s newest sanction by posting a picture of himself holding a pair of guns inside “what appears to be an armory.” His message, which he posted through Telegram, reads, “Pompeo, we accept the fight! What comes next will be more interesting.”
Angered by US #sanctions, #Chechnya's strongman ruler Ramzan #Kadyrov photographed himself holding machine guns against the backdrop of weapons arsenal with very straightforward message to @SecPompeo: "We accept this fight! Interesting times ahead!" https://t.co/WRJX10hNvf pic.twitter.com/Hf6CSYKZib
— Alex Melikishvili (@A_Melikishvili) July 21, 2020
Meanwhile, Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutzky told Interfax news agency that “Moscow would respond to the US sanctions.” He explained, “The grounds for blacklisting [Kadyrov] are absolutely baseless. Russia will find the way to apply countermeasures for this, yet another, illegal decision of the [US] State Department.” Read more about it on DW.
Having said that, you can now watch Welcome to Chechnya (2020, David France) on HBO, guys!
This documentary, which runs for 1 hour and 47 minutes, exposes Chechnya’s atrocities and how a group of activists had risked their lives to rescue victims of Chechnya’s gay purge. They helped gay men on the run by providing them with safe houses and visa assistance to escape persecution. Critics describe the documentary as “chilling,” “harrowing,” and “gut-wrenching” to name a few.
Is about time! I hope there will be Justice for the victims of Ed Buck. Saludos!
Didn’t the UN sanction the United States for human rights violations?
and didn’t the President create Secret Police using unmarked cars and uniforms into the American streets?
The UN is a joke, look at who is on the human rights council. Also, are these gays rioting in the street to get killed? No? Oh so its totally the same thing…..
“enforced disappearances” . . . Sounds like the goings on of US agencies in Portland, OR.
OK, I will put my reply in two parts. Part One, yes it’s a good thing that we’re doing this. No argument there.
Part Two, Pompeo, Trump and company have ONE HELL OF A LOT OF HUBRIS as their own actions fall under the same sanctions of violations of human rights. So just exactly *how much* weight do they think this has?
This piece of total waste needs to be obliterated from the planet.
Gee, why didn’t the great Obama or sleepy Joe ever do anything about this guy? That was quite republican of Pompeo to drop the hammer on the gay basher (literally) Kadyrov. Too bad the prior administration’s secretary of state was too busy pandering for votes and destroying hard drives and cell phones to do anything about this.
Too busy fixing the messes Bush left in his wake. Gotta fix your own country first.
I’m currently with a guy from that area. He’s told me lots of questionable cases where gays die mysteriously in bizarre accidents and suicides. If he and I don’t make it I still hope he never returns there to live.
The United States never sanctions Saudi Arabia … gee, principled much?
I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to live a country like Chechnya, leave alone be LGBTQ. I wish people who use hate to inflict such damage would all dissipate and never be heard from again.