The Kremlin came to the defense of Chechnya's leader on Monday, saying controversial comments the republic's leader recently made about gay men had been “taken out of context,” the TASS news agency reported.

In excerpts of an interview with U.S. television network HBO, Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, called for the removal of gay people "to purify the [nation’s] blood."

Kadyrov was responding to reports that security forces in the restive republic had detained, tortured, and even killed gay men.