Chechen political figure says ‘honor killings’ are a private family matter, calls LGBTQ+ people ‘outcasts and perverts’

Statements by Ruslan Kutayev — president of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus and a member of the PACE platform representing Russia’s indigenous peoples — are generating widespread debate in the Russian opposition.

In an interview with a Ukrainian YouTube channel, he said that when the time comes, Chechens will “return to Moscow” and control the Russian capital so that it “doesn’t get uppity with the surrounding peoples.” Journalist Alexander Plushev later invited Kutayev onto his program to clarify remarks that may have been misunderstood, but the conversation produced several more explosive statements: Kutayev justified “honor killings” and compared queer people to “outcasts” and “perverts,” saying they should not “put themselves on display.” Human rights advocates and journalists are now demanding that Kutayev be removed from his role at PACE and asking how he came to be there in the first place. ...