More bad news from Russia
'Alone and in fear': ordeal of married gay couple forced to flee Russia
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/alone-and-in-fear-ordeal-of-married-gay-couple-forced-to-flee-russia/ar-BBMTDnz
On a cold January evening, as plainclothes police officers hammered relentlessly on the door of their flat near Moscow, newlywed gay couple Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky began to consider fleeing Russia.
“It was a siege situation. The police were in the entrance to the building, and all around it,” Stotsko said this week from the Netherlands, where the couple, who are both 28, were recently granted asylum. “We sat in the flat like in a prison cell, totally alone and in fear,” said Voitsekhovsky.
The two men’s problems with the Russian authorities began at the start of the year after they wed in Denmark, where same-sex marriages have been legal since 2012.
Although homosexuality is not against the law in Russia, same-sex marriage is. But after studying Russian civil law, Stotsko and Voitsekhovsky realised that the authorities are obliged to recognise marriages that have been registered abroad, even those between same-sex couples. Russian officials, it appears, were unaware of the legal loophole.
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A point that must be made: The problem is Russia isn't just the law or heavy handed enforcement. The problem is these things really have popular support.
And yes I blame the Russian Orthodox Church most of all.
Putin is a scoundrel, but he is ideologically adaptable and follows the crowd on this one.
