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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 Affairs Editor. He has been writing about foreign and security affairs for EUobserver since 2005. He is Polish but grew up in the UK. He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Times of London.

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