Russian Applications For U.S. Asylum Skyrocket In 2015--gay bashing

[riversedge]

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Russian Applications For U.S. Asylum Skyrocket In 2015

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-us-asylum-applications-skyrocket/27345403.html


Russian riot police detain gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseyev during an unauthorized gay-rights rally in central Moscow in May.

The number of new U.S. asylum applications by Russians has reached its highest level in more than two decades, a surge that immigration lawyers link to the Kremlin's tightening grip on politics, pervasive corruption, and discrimination and violence against sexual minorities.

Russian nationals filed 1,454 new asylum applications in the 2015 fiscal year ending September 30, up 50 percent from the previous year and more than double the number filed in 2012, when President Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin after a four-year stint as prime minister, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data obtained by RFE/RL under the Freedom Of Information Act.

It is the third consecutive year that the number of U.S. asylum applications filed by Russian citizens has risen since Putin took office for a third presidential term. A single asylum application can include more than one individual, such as the spouse or children of the applicant...................

[RKP5637]

1. Putin is intent IMO on taking Russia back to the cold war era and has identified LGBT as the enemy

to rally the masses. I have friends that were there and could not wait to get back home. They found it cold, stoic and quite unpleasant a place, they were not LGBT. It's a damn shame what Putin is turning Russia into. As many have said, he's a thug, and frankly, just his body language indicates that.

[uhnope]

3. +1 it's sad, tragic and alarming.

My (educated) Russian contacts say they think Putin is a really strange person. They also say that Putin has to stay in power because otherwise he'll go to prison.

I'm really fond of Russia and really hoped for it to join the rest of the freedom-loving world--I think a Russia that embraced democracy could be a great place to live. Putin has led it away from its good side and right back to its shittiest tendencies.

[RKP5637]

4. I was extremely happy when Russia was moving freer, democratic and seemingly a great place to live.

There was also a lot of bonding going on between Russia and the US. Now, Putin has put that behind and IMO he would like move Russian back to the old days. It is so damn sad and pathetic. Yes, he seems a very very peculiar and strange person.

[Old Union Guy]

5. This isn't "Cold War" stuff, it's the Orthodox Church.

Putin wants to be the Holy Tsar.

[RKP5637]

6. Good point!!! n/t

[elfin]

2. The issue was the story line in Madame Secretary

Good delineation of the complex issues facing gay military in Putin's world.