Liberal International, 20.04.2017
In aftermath of the news homosexual concentration camps have been established in Chechnya – which met LI’s and worldwide condemnation – Russian LI member party, Yabloko, has expressed “serious concern about the threats of physical violence from the Chechen Republic” directed at the journalists of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper that published the reports on violence and murders of LGBT people in Chechnya.

Yabloko has been the only political party in the Russian Federation to react to the news from Chechnya and stood up in defence of the LGBT people and now the journalists. In a statement signed by the party Chairman Emilia Slabunova, Yabloko regards the statement about the need for “reprisals without a statute of limitations”, targeting of unnamed people who allegedly “stand behind the publications” [of Novaya Gazeta on violence and murders of LGBT people in Chechnya] as a real and direct threat to the journalists and an indefinitely wide range of people.

Recalling the tragic murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov near the Kremlin by a mastermind close to the Chechen authorities, Yabloko pointed the finger at the Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that “he personally bears full responsibility for the life and health of Novaya Gazeta journalists, as well as politicians, human rights defenders and citizens of Russia, who may become victims of unfolding terrorists.”

In concentrated efforts of liberals in Russia and internationally who called for adherence to the national and international legal instruments to prevent such atrocities, the Russian Democratic Party Yabloko called “for reprisals against journalists and citizens, and incitement of hatred have their authors and sponsors and must be punished as strictly as possible.”

Earlier, Yabloko Chairman Emilia Slabunova called the gruesome practice against the gay man of Chechnya “nothing else but genocide regardless of the number of victims”, as well as “a crime against humanity.”

Source http://liberal-international.org/site/Yabloko_Putin_has_responsibility_in_aftermath_of_Chechnya_gay_genocide.html