MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti) – Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s violence-plagued republic of Chechnya, on Friday strongly criticized the Western lifestyle, saying Europeans lack culture and morals and prefer “everything unnatural."
“Unfortunately, many Russians look up to Europeans [and] their lifestyle. But most Europeans, generally speaking, have little culture or morals,” Kadyrov said at a national conference on family issues.
“They hail everything unnatural. They consider same-sex marriages to be a normal practice. I’m appalled even to talk about that. I personally don’t want to be a European. I want to be a citizen of Russia,” he said.
Russian authorities have been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups and Western officials over a recently adopted law introducing punishment for the promotion of nontraditional sexual relationships toward minors.
Although the Kremlin maintains that the law does not prevent adults from making their own sexual choices, critics describe it as a state-supported crackdown on gay people.
