Things seem to be going from bad to worse in Russia for the LGBT community and a homophobic performance where actual Russian cadets pretended to crush a gay man has only exacerbated things.
The performance at the Dobrynin Palace of Culture in Yaroslavl last weekend was shown as part of an anniversary celebration for a local patriotic military club but audience members were understandably concerned.
In the performance the soldiers carried a half naked man above their heads with ‘death to f****ts’ daubed on his stomach and then they proceeded to smash a concrete block on top of him.
The director of the Palace of Culture, Igor Derbin, said: ““Initially, the event was planned to be pleasant and joyful. Their trick was unexpected for us. It was not pre-planned or agreed upon because they knew we would not allow it. By their act, they crossed out all the good impressions of the event. And they put a shadow on me, on themselves, on the institution”
In response, the head of the military club Andrei Palachev said: “What’s the problem? They just don’t like f****ts, and neither do I.”
This all comes as Russian state television spouted ant-gay rhetoric during the Olympics (in which they weren’t even allowed to have an official team due to state sponsored cheating) and western journalists are hounded out of the country for reporting the truth. Any semblance that Russia was a democracy seems to ebb away by the day.