The banning of LGBTQ+ people by Russia’s Supreme Court is a criminal act of Putin’s regime. Its purpose is completely transparent – it is yet another mechanism to keep power, at any cost, in the hands of Putin and his entourage. There is no homophobia in Russia, except that artificially imposed by new “laws” and state propaganda. Russia is not a wild country, and its people are not wild. But it has a wild, archaic government that imposes backwardness on society.
It is clear that Putin’s state homophobia contradicts both Russian tradition and the formal provisions of the current Russian Constitution. It reflects, as in a drop of water, the entire construction of personal dictatorship. If there were no rigged elections, inadequate cliches of the Milonov-Mizulin type would not be in parliament. If the Supreme Court had not been dismantled piece by piece over the years, and the Constitutional Court had not self-destructed, the obviously illegal “laws” passed by the parliament would have been repealed.
And it’s not just the system of state power. Had it not been for the war and political repressions, all the famous writers, scientists and cultural figures had not been expelled from the country, the public discourse could not have been dominated by impurities like Solovev-Kiselev-Prilepin. If public activity had not been banned, then, of course, TV and stadiums would have been filled not with shamans, but with those who are truly popular: the younger generation and those who are followed by tens of millions in the younger generation have an absolutely normal and adequate perception of LGBTQ+ people.
There is, however, a ray of hope in this decision. In the pursuit of power and profit, Putin and his ilk continue their war not just against Russia as a whole. They are at war against tens of millions of the younger generation. Of course, such wars are sometimes won by “old men”: just look at Iran. But much more often the truth, progress – all good things – win out in the end.
