Putin’s Russia has a long history of anti-LGBT sentiment and the Kremlin’s repression has only gotten worse in recent years, according to the dissident campaigner Vladimir Arutyunyan. The already dire situation for LGBTQ+ people in Russia has combined with the conflict in Ukraine to fan the flames of homophobic sentiment among the country’s leaders and media.
The former CEO of a Russian fast fashion chain added that he had experienced violence several times, telling Express.co.uk: “I faced violence several times, in Russia, I was beaten in the street in 2006, 2012 and 2017. I was not out but people could feel that I was gay, it was obvious, but you hide it and you never say it out loud.
“You pretend not to be gay and it’s horrible.”
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Vladimir explained, starting from the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, that the LGBTQ+ community in Russia has gone from being a common opponent of the state ideology, which is homophobic, to being nearly the primary enemy of Russia.
He told Express.co.uk: “Since February 2022, when the invasion of Ukraine started, the LGBTQ+ community in Russia changed from ordinary opponents who were created as targets of the state ideology, a homophobic ideology, and became almost the main enemy of Russia.
“Because like all Russian politicians, the president, and even the head of the Russian church, they openly describe LGBTQ+ as a satanic Western worldview.
“For them, the war is not only in Ukraine, but it’s a war against those ‘satanic Western worldviews’ that Russia and the Russian president as a so-called hero are trying to protect Russian traditional values from.”
She now faces up to eight years in prison, highlighting the severe consequences of speaking out against the government’s actions.
The Russian government has taken steps to further marginalize the country’s LGBTQ+ community, with legislation that restricts their rights and freedoms.
These laws limit the rights of LGBT individuals, such as a ban on same-sex marriage and a law against LGBT propaganda that criminalizes the promotion of gay rights
Anti-Kremlin activists like Vladimir fear the hard new anti-gay law passed in December will only worsen the situation for Russia’s beleaguered LGBT community.
Vladimir said: “Putin seeks to exalt traditional Russian values above what he has called the outright satanism of the West.
“This Russian parliament has adopted in the second reading a bill that further tightens the screws on Russia’s beleaguered LGBTQ-plus community, and I’m pretty sure that we already see that the new legislation will worsen in terms of violence, forced outing, catfishing and extortion of Russia’s LGBT community and will provide a permissive environment for ever-worsening hate speech.
“In fact, the Putin regime puts gay people in Russia in an illegal status. LGBTQ people face limitations on freedom of speech, discrimination in labour, defamation campaigns, bullying and limitation of freedom of association. The discrimination is everywhere.”
“Now it’s even much more dangerous for gay people to be in Russia just simply to be there because the Government will never protect them, a gay person can be killed and with a big probability, no one even will investigate or will punish the criminals because gay people are the main target of this pro-war ideology.”
Such is the level of state repression that Vladimir only felt safe to come out publically as gay after he had fled to Dubai last year the day after Putin launched his invasion on February 24.
Having since arrived in the UK, the political blogger said: “In Russia, I was not out. I was closeted and I came out when I was in Dubai. I did it publicly on my Instagram blog because I got tired of the lie.
“I was not myself and since the war began I can see how gay people are becoming the main target of the state war ideology.”
“I felt at the time if I chose this path to stand against the war, against the government and the state ideology, and I chose the path to stand for humanity, to stand with Ukraine and for human rights, then I’m going to advocate also for LGBTQ rights. So that’s why I decided that that was the time to come out.”
