CNN on Russia’s serial kidnapper/torturer of gays who Putin refuses to arrest

CNN just did a blockbuster report on an issue we’ve been reporting on for months: Russia’s nearly two-dozen-city strong network of ultra-nationalist vigilante groups who kidnap young gay teens and torture them on film, then publish them on Russian social media network VK.com, that oddly lets them publish videos and photos of their crimes.

This video, below, is a must-see, and a must-share.

CNN’s broadcast comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin warning gays attending the Olympics to “leave kids alone,” or face arrest under Russia’s draconian new anti-gay “propaganda” law.

Ironically, the biggest threat to Russian children seems to be Vladimir Putin himself. Put has let children-kidnapping vigilantes organize across Russia with impunity.

Russian vigilante groups have organized around the country to kidnap young gay people and terrorize them. In this case, they have kidnapped a young gay man from South Africa, who is being forced to eat a watermelon.

One boy was reportedly tortured at gunpoint, then raped with a bottle that was shoved in even further using a baseball bat:

The series of short clips, making the rounds on the mobile phone application WhatsApp show the victim, who seems to be an ethnic Uzbek, being bullied into confessing that he is gay.
He is asked to identify himself and is stripped of his clothes, which are later burned. He is then handcuffed, beaten, insulted, and threatened with a gun. Ultimately, he is forced to sodomize himself by sitting on a bottle, which is then pushed with a bat.
The man, visibly terrified, weeps throughout much of the ordeal.

Image of the young man who was kidnaped, tortured and raped, via RFE/RL.

The Russian authorities have been generally disinterested in the crimes – the victims are, after all, gay – and to date have prosecuted no one, even though the perpetrators’ faces, and often home towns, are clearly visible in the videos.

Much more on Americablog! 

UPDATED: Less than 24 hours after CNN broadcast a scathing segment on how the Russian government was refusing to prosecute Maxim Martsinkevich, an ultra-nationalist who has formed a nationwide organization that kidnaps and tortures young gay teens, Cuba has arrested Martsinkevich.