Merkel presses Putin over anti-gay purge in Chechnya
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Version 0 of 1. Angela Merkel has urged Vladimir Putin to investigate reports of the torture and persecution of gay men in Chechnya and to ensure the safety of LGBT people across the region. The German chancellor, making her first visit to Russia for two years, in a trip described by her officials as bridge-building mission, said she had raised the issue with the Russian president along with other human rights concerns. A violent crackdown on gay people in Chechnya was first reported in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which has alleged that more than 100 Chechen men suspected of being gay have been rounded up and at least three killed. The Guardian has independently spoken to gay Chechen men who gave accounts of beatings and torture in the ultra-conservative, predominantly Muslim southern Russian republic. The Kremlin has supported the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s denials of an anti-gay purge, arguing that it has no information to back research carried out by journalists and human rights organisations. During a joint press conference with Putin at his summer retreat in Sochi on the Black Sea coast, Merkel said she had received “negative reports on the way that homosexuals are dealt with, particularly in Chechnya”. Western governments and human rights groups have called on Russian authorities to investigate the reports of repression in Chechnya, where society is strictly conservative even by Russia standards. Merkel also raised concerns over restrictions on the freedom of assembly in Russia, following the arrest by riot police of people demonstrating against the anti-gay campaign. “It is important to have the right to demonstrate in a democracy, and the role of NGOs is very important,” Merkel said. “I asked Mr Putin to utilise his influence to protect these minority rights, as well as in the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” she said. Russia’s supreme court banned the religious organisation last month, branding it an “extremist organisation” and giving it the same status as Isis and Nazi groups. In the wake of reports that Russian hackers have interfered with the Bundestag’s computer system, Merkel said Germany would take “decisive measures” if there was any indication of foreign interference ahead of Germany’s elections in September. She said she was “not an anxious person” and was confident that Germany would weather any attempts at disinformation. But she made a point of citing cases of what she called “gross misinformation” spread by the Russian media, including the false claim that a 13-year-old girl of Russian origin had been kidnapped and raped by asylum seekers in Berlin and that the authorities had covered it up. It was well known that hybrid warfare plays a role in Russia’s military doctrine, Merkel added. Putin responded by saying that Russia “never interferes in other countries’ affairs”, and insisted it was often the victim of interference itself, by foreign governments and NGOs. The meeting between Merkel and Putin, which was due to last around three and a half hours, had been billed as preparatory talks ahead of the G20, which Merkel will host in the northern German city of Hamburg in July. But unsurprisingly it was dominated by the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, with Merkel urging Russia to guarantee ceasefires that have repeatedly failed in both countries. Referring to the deadly chemical weapons attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April, Putin said his government condemned the use of such weapons and called for an impartial investigation, even though all the evidence points to the culpability of the Assad regime. He said a solution in Syria required a willingness for those involved to strive for peace and could only happen under the supervision of the United Nations. On Ukraine, where Russia supports separatist rebels fighting the Kiev government, Merkel said she and Putin were of “completely different opinions over the cause” of the conflict. Both leaders readily admitted the serious tensions that exist between them. But Putin was at pains to stress the economic bonds between the countries. He said Germany was Russia’s most important economic partner, and pointed out that 35% of German gas originated in Russia. Merkel stressed the need to uphold the countries’ many cultural and humanitarian partnerships, such as in science and youth exchange programmes, at a time of “grave differences of opinion”. Without them, she said, Russia-Germany relations were in danger of becoming “even more difficult and lacking in understanding”. Relations between the two leaders have never been easy, despite the fact both are fluent in the other’s language. Ten years ago Putin let his black labrador Koni loose in the room while they posed for photographs, despite having been advised that Merkel does not like dogs having been bitten by one as a child. The Russian president was apparently annoyed that Merkel had chosen to meet with their leading advisers present, in contrast to the more intimate one-to-one encounters he had been used to with her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. |