Optimism in Check, Nihilism at Bay
With the Olympics now underway in Sochi, the world is forced to view a country where the freedoms of its citizens have undergone abrupt and tragic erosions in the… More
Open Season on Russian Gays and Lesbians
These are just a few examples, but they illustrate the point: the purpose of this law isn’t just to shove LGBT people back in the closet, it’s also meant… More
Steamrolling Onto the World Stage
In two weeks’ time, the Olympic games will be over, athletes and foreign guests will depart, and Olympic kitsch will proliferate in many homes in the form of tchotchkes… More
Gay Propaganda: Olga & Irina
What country are we living in and in what year, when priests bless half- drunk nationalists that pelt people with rocks while the police look on and then load… More
Gay Propaganda: Sergei
There wasn’t a single gay man among them. There were grown men next to me, who’d come down with delirium tremens, schizophrenia. That’s when I learned that madness is… More
Putin, Ventriloquism, and Free Speech
The Russian government has gotten back into the story business. This is bad news for people who like to tell stories of their own, but good news for people… More
“The ongoing crackdown on civil society is truly unprecedented”
Those who dare speak out—be it about their sexual identity or their discontent with governmental policies—are threatened with punishment and blackened in the eyes of society. More
What Would Vladimir Putin Do?
What would Brian Boitano do? He'd parody some lyrics to highlight free expression violations in Russia, of course. More
Russia in Between Security and Democracy
The book market is not noticeably being censored. What is evident, however, is that innovative and controversial literature is being plucked out of the canon (thereby causing it to… More
Day of Rage
we checked it all out, twice we passed / the policeman in his sentry-box… / when we dispersed in the half gloom of side-streets / I noted this image:… More
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