In a press statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they have “extensive credible information” that Kadyrov is responsible for “numerous gross violations of human rights dating back more than a decade, including torture and extrajudicial killings.” The authoritarian leader is widely feared within Russia and is known for his extreme, anti-LGBTQ+ views.
In 2017, he publicly declared that he wanted all LGBTQ+ people in the Russian republic to be eliminated by May 26, the start of Ramadan, despite his laughable claim that Chechnya doesn’t “have these kinds of people here.” Months before his comments, it was reported by respected Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, that over 100 gay men had been rounded up by police and detained in what was