Sexual minorities in Russia live in fear of violence
Sexual and gender minorities in Russia face a great deal of violence, discrimination and hate speech, especially from private individuals and extremist groups. There are no official statistics of any kind concerning violence against minorities.
These are findings from the theme report compiled by the Country Information Service of the Finnish Immigration Service on the situation of LGBT communities in Russia.
Increased hate after new law
“Various organisations estimate that violence and negative attitudes, which were there to begin with, have escalated since the Russian government enacted the federal ‘gay propaganda law’ in 2013,” says Researcher Katri-Maija Karvonen.
Organisations report that it is futile to turn to the authorities and ask for protection for sexual or gender minorities or events organised by them. “The few convictions that there have been for premeditated violence against minorities have resulted in disproportionately lenient sentences,” Karvonen adds.
She notes that inflammatory rhetoric concerning sexual minorities may be found in the media and in the opinions of politicians, the government and the leadership of the Orthodox Church.
“Sexual orientation may be coupled for instance with paedophilia and sexually transmitted diseases,” says Karvonen.
Opinion polls show increasingly hostile environment
According to opinion polls conducted by the Levada-Center, an independent Russian research organisation, 76% of Russians are in favour of the gay propaganda law. The majority of respondents (85%) was opposed to Pride parades, and 38% were in favour of putting homosexuals into involuntary treatment.
“Activists reckon that the majority of Russians are actually very ignorant about this matter. Their opinions reflect not so much their personal knowledge as public opinion and conservative views,” Karvonen explains.
“The increasingly hostile environment experienced by LGBT minorities in Russia is reflected in asylum-seeking trends in Finland,” she adds.
|
The present theme report is an outcome of the Suuntaus project, a country information development project funded by the European Refugee Fund. There are four country information researchers involved in the project, seeking to identify current recurring themes in the protocols of interviews with persons seeking asylum in Finland. Topics for theme reports – public documents based on information from public sources – have been collected from a total of more than 300 interview protocols. Theme reports on Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and stateless persons will be published during spring and summer 2015. The Country Information Service of the Finnish Immigration Service constantly collects information on the countries of origin of asylum seekers. The Suuntaus project is part of this work. The information acquired helps the immigration officials making permit decisions. |
Further information:
Arno Tanner, Project Manager, tel. 0295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi
Katri-Maija Karvonen, Researcher, tel. 0295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi
