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Pride in St. Petersburg, the more open of Russia's two big cities, last year (Photo: Maria Komarova)

Feature

Gay rights fall victim to EU-Russia geopolitics

Pride in St. Petersburg, the more open of Russia's two big cities, last year (Photo: Maria Komarova)

“The idea is that being gay isn’t patriotic. If you’re gay, then you’re a foreign agent, a Western agent, and you’re here to spread Western values,” Pavel Loparev, a Russian film-maker, told EUobserver.

Nvard Margaryan, an Armenian gay rights activist, noted: “They [pro-Russia NGOs] say people will take children from ‘normal’ families and give them to gay families … They say Europe doesn’t care about people’s rights, only gay rights. They call it ‘gayeuropa’.”

Protection of sexu...

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Author Bio

Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.

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