Sinyavsky exploits the alien metaphor to the fullest by making his narrator an exotic plant that can barely survive in the harsh Moscow winter and the harsher Soviet communal apartment.
Continue reading...Boys Just Want to Have Fun: Just How Queer are the “Satisfaction” Videos?
Eliot BorensteinThe Satisfaction supporters are definitely fighting for something, but it is not LGBT rights
Continue reading...The European Court’s Pro-Gay Ruling Is Great Anti-Gay Propaganda
Alice E.M. UnderwoodThe ECHR ruling plays right into the Kremlin’s favorite narrative: Western liberalism is not only offensive to traditional values, but also out to get Russia.
Continue reading...The Day of Family, Love and Fidelity: “Traditional Values” and Church-State Relations in Russia
Diana DukhanovaZERO Die In Russian Gay Night Club Shooting. You’ll Never Guess the Reason Why.
Harry LeedsNotes from the Bathroom
Roman UtkinNorth Carolina Governor Pat McCrory may not be as good at riding horses topless, swimming in Siberian lakes, and flying with cranes, but his ability to bend logical reasoning almost matches Putin’s.
Continue reading...Don’t Let the Transvestite Drive the Bus?
Eliot BorensteinOverkill as Governance: How I Spent my Summer in Moscow (Part I)
Thomas CallahanIt’s no secret to those who study Russia that the culture of vertical control here affects everyone – not least human rights workers and lawyers fighting good fights.
Continue reading...Putin, Planes, and Propaganda
Eliot BorensteinA healthy government can be relied on to reject conspiracy theories. An unhealthy government helps disseminate them.
Continue reading...Russia Under Siege: Attack of the Gay Pillows
Eliot BorensteinIt’s not easy keeping an open mind about what’s going on in Russia when government officials are so intent on keeping minds closed.
Continue reading...Dangerous Liaisons: Ukraine and Western Slavists
Rossen DjagalovTold you so about Sochi (Part II)
Harry LeedsStrangely enough, fears of violence against gays can act as good PR for Russia by drawing attention away against a real threat: terrorism from the Caucasus.
Continue reading...Elton John as Gay Propaganda in Russia
Harry LeedsAn Imam in Kazan had prayed to prevent Elton John from performing because of his homosexuality. This is about as peaceful and spiritual as protests get.
Continue reading...Fictional Gays and Real Meteorites in Chelyabinsk
Harry LeedsChelyabinsk is about the last place in Russian you’d expect to find any kind of gay movement, and comedians have taken advantage of this.
Continue reading...Russia’s Culture Wars, or Россия диве дается
Eliot BorensteinWhen Mitt Romney declared Russia the “number 1 geopolitical foe” during the recent US presidential campaign, he would have been on much firmer ground had he simply added “of Madonna and Lady Gaga.”
Continue reading...Stories Not About Putin, or Masha Gessen Bikes to the Kremlin
Eliot BorensteinAuthoritarian Fun Fact: when the political culture and mechanisms of power all revolve around one man (sexist language intended), the accidental consequences of that man’s actions can be both disheartening and hilarious (when they are not tragic and reprehensible).
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