SYRIA thread

[Strike For The South]

Ramzan Kadryov is the despot ruling the Chechen republic. The man is a walking vulgarity. His rule, a testament brutal hedonism. He is basically the third man in power (chronologically) since Putin shelled his own country and kidnapped his own citizens. After that Putin exploited a division between Chechen Muslims and the whabbis by hand picking Kadryovs father as leader. There's more to it than that, but that basically gets us to where we are at now.

Kadryov has been more than happy to get his hands dirty assassinating Putins political opponents while Putin has been more than happy to pump money into the republic now that it has a friendly disposition to Moscow. Nothing to surprising there, a princeling is showered with gifts when he does the Czars bidding.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7700711.html

Recently Kardryov has been accused of rounding up the gays, which while passe, is still troubling. Allegedly, this started when a group of gay men sought permission to hold a parade. I suppose sometimes asking does have its consequences. The Chechen response has been all over the place. First, they claimed it was an April Fools joke. Then, they claimed that no gay men existed in their republic. This unassailable fact was then amended. Kadryov stated that if these men did exist (no doubt as a result of western corruption) their families would simply "take care of them". No doubt a reference to honor killings, which also permeate the republic.

Unsurprisingly, Moscow is unmoved. They are backing their strongman without so much as a curiosity about what is going on. Considering the state of gay rights as a whole in the country, this is entirely unsurprising. Putin will back his man so long as he remains his man. Sort of like how you could gas your own people and Russia will claim that you didn't. Even when France and The USA have proof that you did. Russias propaganda arm is about the only thing that works in the country. They may run out of bread, but by God can they muddy the waters when it comes to news.

The Chechen story is a great illustration of this because Russia simply doesn't care enough about gays to make up an elaborate lie. Syria is wrapped up in a humanitarian crisis and power politics. That makes things unclear for people and when things are unclear disinformation is a powerful tool.

Why should you believe anything the Russian government says?