They said "Russia" when they meant "Chechnya"

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In the article here https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3300538/r ... -murdered/ the title says the "secret prisons for gays" were "in Russia". But if you read the actual article, it says they were in Chechnya. Now, I realize that Chechnya is technically part of Russia. But keep in mind: it tried to separate back in the 90-s and early 2000-s, but Russia didn't let it. And the West was on the Chechnya side during that war. So its interesting how Chechnya is either part of Russia or not, depending on what is convenient for the West.

a) When it comes to the war between Russia and Chechnya, then the West sees Chechnya as a totally separate country, occupied by Russia

b) When it comes to persecution of gays, then suddenly the West views Chechnya as part of Russia. In fact, so much so, that they put "Russia" in the title, instead of "Chechnya".

Also note this:

c) When it comes to Russia vs the West, then Russia is a bad guy because it hates gays more

d) When it comes to the war between Russia and Chechnya, they don't side with Russia because Chechnya hates gays even more. They side with Chechnya, regardless of their respective gay policies.

The article describes Chechnya's current leader Ramzan Kadyrov as "a key ally" to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thats not what they said in the title though. In the title they just said Russia.

Also, key ally doesn't mean that their policies are identical in everything. Clearly, Putin doesn't have similar program when it comes to prosecution of gays, as evident from the fact that gays try to flee from Chechnya to Russia.

The Sun is literally written to be understood by small children. I can't remember if the aim is to be understood by someone with a reading age of 7 or 9, something like that. So criticising it for not going deep into geopolitics is missing the point. It's not Foreign Policy, its remit is to make news that almost anyone can understand.

I don't think there's any contradiction in thinking that Chechnya should be independent, but is currently part of Russia. I think Tibet should be independent, but acknowledge it is currently controlled by China. I think Kurdistan should be independent, but it is currently split between Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, with varying levels of control. I think Somaliland should be independent, but it is legally part of Somalia, even if in practice it's basically the other way around. I could go on.

Then they should have made a little aside and explain that Chechnya is currently a part of Russia but is culturally different. So what is reported occurs in Chechnya, which is reflective of Chechen culture but not Russian culture as a whole. Then they could also explain that Russian culture is also anti-gay, but not to that extend.

Sure, this requires a lot of attention span. But kids don't have to read it all in one piece. They can always read a sentence, put it aside, disgest it, read another sentence tomorrow, etc. So within several days they can disject the above.

Or, if they still think it is too much for kids, they could just skip the whole thing altogether. But posting misleading information is bad, particularly given current political crisis.



Part of the reason it should be independent is that culturally its different from Russia at large. This being the case, what happened in Chechnya is not reflective of Russia as a whole, so they shouldn't be misleading people into thinking that it is.

Most of the mass media (other than those few that specifically target an educated elite) assume that their readers have short attention spans.

Headlines are written for the primary purpose of grabbing attention. "Russia" is more attention-grabbing than "Chechnya," given that "Russia" is much better known -- a lot of young folks probably have never even heard of Chechnya.

The article does mention Chechnya in a subtitle, and in the article itself. It's not outright false to say "Russia" in the main headline, given that Chechnya is a part of Russia.

Russia, as a whole, is pretty anti-gay, anyway.