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Reports of conflict and civil unrest across the world continue to dominate the news agenda. There’s no question the horrors of war can impact anyone, but LGBTQ+ people caught up in them can be disproportionately affected due to added challenges that others simply don’t have to contend with. As the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, Russia is continuing its war of ideology as well as weapons as it attempts to stir up anti-LGBTQ+ feeling at home. In order to consolidate power and create a common enemy, it is scapegoating and targeting queer people — with repercussions for Ukrainian as well as Russian members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Despite homosexuality being legalised in Russia in 1993, following the fall of the Soviet Union two years before, Russia has been strengthening its anti-LGBTQ+ stance for years now. Even before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, members of LGBTQ+ communities in Russia had to contend with an increasingly hostile environment. From the infamous federal law banning ‘gay propaganda’ among minors in 2013 to the series of anti-gay purges in the Russian republic of Chechnya in 2017, any variations from so-called ‘traditional values’ are viewed with disdain in the Federation.