MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Leader of Russia's Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov on Tuesday invited French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to visit Chechnya and personally examine the situation surrounding LGBT rights in the republic.
"One should not accuse Russian media of slander and at the same time be guided by false information. French President Macron together with Merkel can come to Chechnya in search for the truth. The doors are open!" Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.
On April 1, the Russian Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported, citing sources in the Chechen Interior Ministry, that over 100 men suspected of being homosexual were detained and tortured in the republic, and that at least three were killed. Kadyrov in a conversation with Putin dismissed the allegations, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying there was no reason for the Kremlin to not believe the information provided by Kadyrov.
Kadyrov’s spokesman Alvi Karimov has called the allegations "a lie" and said that it was impossible to persecute those "who did not exist in the republic."
