Putin’s Puppeteers Try to Deflect Attention from Olympic Boycott

By Attempting to Divide Russian LGBT Movement | List of Trusted Russian LGBT Activists for Media to call upon

By Larry Poltavtsev

Since last week in a bizarre fashion a number of known to the foreign media Russian LGBT figures started to make polarizing anti-West statements either using their own broadcasting platforms or even utilizing Putin’s TV channels. These statements provoked other activists both inside and outside Russia to write sharply worded articles and give out interviews. Naturally, this situation quickly led to the direct confrontation among different groups of already fragmented and disfranchised Russian LGBT community. Moreover, this Kremlin orchestrated provocation stirred up conflicts between certain activists residing in Western countries and their Russian counterparts. Resulting chaos and media circus immediately deflected the world’s attention from the horrendous plight of gay people in Russia and the impending threat of the boycott of the Olympic Games in Sochi. Good job, Mr. Putin! Looks like he well spent “$300 million of state funds last year on the external audiovisual service RT, designed primarily to spoonfeed the Kremlin worldview to a global audience.”

Would it be possible for our media to realize that they were played? Can they stop worrying about self-proclaimed LGBT leaders in Russia and start talking to actual activists on the ground? What prevents them from talking to:

– Valery Sozaev and Polina Andrianova, Coming Out LGBT Organization, St. Petersburg

– Gennady Rosh, Eurasian Coalition for Men’s Health

– Natasha Tsymbalova, Ivan Simochkin and Irina Beloyar, Straights for Equality Alliance

– Elena Kostyuchenko, journalist at Novaya Gazeta

– Roman Kalinin, activist

and many others?

Spectrum Human Rights will be happy to connect Western media with Russian LGBT activists. Also, we are happy to provide all our broadcasting platforms to our Russian counterparts.

For inquiries please contact ” media at spectrumhr.org.”

http://goo.gl/45iub1

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