TALLINN, Estonia — In the year since Russia’s Supreme Court effectively outlawed any promotion of LGBTQ+ rights, activists say they are experiencing a climate of fear and intimidation in the country.

LGBTQ+ rights have been under legal and public pressure for over a decade under President Vladimir Putin, but especially since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Putin has argued the war is a proxy battle with the West, which he says aims to destroy Russia and its “traditional family values.”

Putin insists Russia doesn’t discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, but he also decries “perversions that lead to degradation and extinction.” Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin last year called gender transitioning “pure satanism” that should stay in the U.S.

Any public representation of gay and transgender people is banned. Gender-affirming medical care and changing one’s gender in official documents is prohibited. With the Supreme Court’s ruling in November 2023 that found “the international LGBT movement” to be extremist, members of the LGBTQ+ community can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to six years.

As a result, many people like Gela Gogishvili and Haoyang Xu have fled Russia. They lived a happy life in the republic of Tatarstan, where Gogishvili was a pharmacist and Xu was a student from China.

They were detained after the Kremlin in December 2022 expanded its ban of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” from minors to adults, effectively outlawing any public endorsement of LGBTQ+ activities.

Authorities accused them of spreading “LGBT propaganda” among minors. Gogishvili was fined, while Xu was put in a detention center for migrants pending deportation. They eventually fled abroad separately and are seeking asylum in France.

“I’m scared for the queer community in Russia that remains in the country,” Gogishvili said.

Targeting nightclubs, rainbow flags and gay tourism

Those who remain find themselves pushed into the shadows, marginalized even further and dogged by fear of repression and prison.

“Six years, it’s not a joke,” said Olga Baranova, head of the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives. She says activists must decide if what they’re doing is worth that kind of a prison sentence.

Just days after the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, the LGBTQ+ community was rattled by news of police raiding gay bars, nightclubs and venues that hosted drag shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities.

Last spring, the first criminal case on charges of involvement with the “LGBT movement” extremist group was lodged against the owner and staff of a bar in the city of Orenburg that held drag performances.

Charges have been filed for displaying symbols such as a rainbow flag — even though many of those accused had nothing to do with the LGBTQ+ community, said human rights lawyer Max Olenichev.

More raids of bars and nightclubs were reported in Moscow last month, almost exactly a year since the Supreme Court ruling.

One man arrested for allegedly running a travel agency for gay customers faces charges of organizing activities of an extremist organization. Independent news outlet Mediazona reported that Andrei Kotov, 48, rejected the charges and said police beat him and administered electric shocks during his arrest, even though he didn’t resist.

Fear, intimidation and terror

This “speaks more about the desire of the authorities to create some kind of atmosphere of fear. It’s not repressions, it’s terror,” said Vladimir, an LGBTQ+ rights advocate in Russia who like many interviewed by AP insisted on being identified only by a first name out of security concerns.

Ikar, a fellow activist and transgender man, described the actions by authorities as “an attempt to intimidate … to make people lose their social connections, stay silent, stay home.”

Vladimir and Ikar belong to an underground LGBTQ+ rights group offering legal aid. Activists thoroughly verify identities of anyone seeking its help.

The group sees a growing number of cases related to violence against LGBTQ+ people, Vladimir said.

Some regional organizations have closed and others have changed their operations. The Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives moved much of its work to online chats and meetings so people can still “support each other,” according to Baranova.

Help for hard-hit transgender community

The ban and other repressive laws and rulings have delivered a harsh blow to the already-vulnerable trans community, says Yan Dvorkin, head of the Center T trans rights group.

Finding a job is more difficult, both for those who haven’t changed their gender marker in documents and those who have. Access to gender-affirming medical care is a major issue. Violence has spiked, Dvorkin said, as has harassment and discrimination, including blackmail attempts, by threatening to report them to authorities.

Anna, a 25-year-old transgender Muscovite, said being part of the community provided the courage to transition last year, after the ban on gender-affirming care was enacted.

Anna considers herself lucky to have a good paying job to afford a doctor advising her from abroad on hormonal therapy, and is able to get the medicine in Moscow.

But she said she hasn’t come out to her colleagues for fear of losing her job, and she is sometimes harassed on the street because of her appearance.

She says she has a support network of friends and doesn’t want to leave Russia, even though she’ knows the risks.

Uncertainty for those staying in Russia

Yulia, another transgender woman, also says she wants to stay, describing it as a kind of mission to show that “people like me are not necessarily weak.” In her mid-40s, she has a family and children, a successful career, and the respect and acceptance from colleagues and friends.

For her, “it’s about normalizing” being trans, she said.

But much “normalizing” is possible now and in the future is uncertain.

The ban on “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” forces print, TV and movie censorship of LGBTQ+ relations. In a recent example, two Russian streaming services cut a trans character from the 1990 drama series Twin Peaks.

At the same time, there is abundant official rhetoric condemning LGBTQ+ people.

Gela Gogishvili, the gay man who fled Russia last year, worries about the next generation of LGBTQ+ people who are currently growing up and “will be taught that (being queer) is bad.”
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Denmark has delivered a second batch of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday as he traveled to Paris to meet with top politicians and dignitaries.

In a message on Telegram, Zelenskyy praised Denmark and lamented a lack of dedication from other allies.

“The first batch of planes provided by the Danes are already shooting down Russian missiles: rescuing our people and our infrastructure. Now our air shield is reinforced even further,” he said. “If all partners were so determined, we would have been able to make Russian terror impossible.”

The announcement comes as Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region marks a day of mourning for 10 people killed in a Russian attack on Friday. A further 24 people, including two children, were injured when a missile struck a local service station, said regional Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Three more people were killed in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.

Addressing the attacks, Zelenskyy said that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not seek “real peace.”

Putin “only seeks the ability to treat any country this way, with bombs, missiles, and all other forms of violence,” Zelenskyy said. “Only through strength can we resist this. And only through strength can real peace be established.”

Zelenskyy is due to meet other world leaders Saturday, including French President Emmanuel Macron, at an event in Paris celebrating the renovation of Notre Dame Cathedral after a devastating fire in 2019.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is among those expected to be in attendance, with European leaders keen to cultivate the incoming leader’s favor to persuade him to maintain support for Ukraine against Russia’s three-year invasion. It’s not clear whether Trump will meet with Zelenskyy.
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The iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is reopening Saturday evening, more than five years after a fire destroyed its roof and spire. An invitation-only ceremony will include heads of state and government, with French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a speech before Archbishop Laurent Ulrich formally reopens its doors.
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As North Korean troops bolster Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, the U.S. is urging China to rein in its allies’ provocative actions. This comes amid indications that Beijing is increasingly uneasy about the expanding partnership between Russia and North Korea. VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching reports.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday introduced new long-range Peklo drone missiles being manufactured in a Ukrainian factory, the first batch of which, he said, already has been delivered to the nation’s armed forces.

In footage released by his office, Zelenskyy could be seen touring the factory in an undisclosed location alongside Ukraine Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and other officials.

In a post to his X social media account, Zelenskyy said the hybrid drone-missile Peklo — which means “hell” in Ukrainian — has a range of 700 kilometers and a speed of 700 kilometers per hour. He said it already has proven its combat effectiveness.

Ukrainian officials said the drones are cost-effective and comparable to some Russian-made cruise missiles in terms of performance.

“It is crucial that our defenders receive such modern, Ukrainian-made weaponry,” Zelenskyy said in the recording. “Now the task is to continue ramping up its production and deployment.”

The announcement comes a day after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry announced plans to supply their armed forces with more than 30,000 long-range attack drones in 2025, with funding supplied by international partners. In a statement, the ministry said the drones operate autonomously and can strike enemy targets with high precision.

The ministry made those arrangements in light of U.S President Joe Biden’s term winding down and the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Trump has voiced skepticism about continued support and said he would resolve the war before his January 20 inauguration, but did not say how.

A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson in a background briefing told reporters that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, at the White House for meetings on Thursday to discuss the future of U.S. support for Ukraine.

The spokesperson said the meeting lasted more than an hour with Sullivan focused on Biden’s theory that improving Ukraine’s position in its war against Russia would allow Ukraine to enter negotiations from a position of strength.

The spokesperson said Sullivan and Yermak discussed the four-part U.S. strategic support for Ukraine, which involves increased military assistance, economic pressure on Russia through sanctions, addressing Ukraine’s manpower challenges and sustaining support for Ukraine’s economy.

To implement the strategy, the spokesperson noted the U.S. will provide Ukraine’s military with hundreds of thousands of additional artillery rounds, thousands of additional rockets and hundreds of additional armored vehicles between now and January.

They also pointed to the sweeping set of U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia’s financial sector and said that more sanctions would follow in the coming weeks, all designed to make it more difficult for Russia to sustain its war against Ukraine.

Sullivan and Yermak reportedly discussed a U.S. offer to prepare newly mobilized soldiers at training sites outside of Ukraine.

And to help sustain Ukraine’s economy in the months ahead, the spokesperson said the U.S. is finalizing the $20 billion Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loan agreement between the governments, backed by the profits of immobilized Russian sovereign assets.

The NSC spokesperson said the strategy is designed to improve Ukraine’s position in war for the coming year and lay the foundation for a negotiated settlement “that provides for an independent, sovereign and democratic Ukraine.”

Mykhailo Komadovsky of VOA’s Russian Service contributed to this report.
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The Russian veto blocked a U.N. resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Sudan, where a civil war has killed at least 66,000, destroyed civil institutions, causing widespread hunger, disease, sexual violence and a refugee crisis with more than 11 million people displaced.
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Prominent Georgian opposition leader and former journalist Nika Gvaramia is recovering after being beaten unconscious by police Wednesday amid pro-Europe protests in Tbilisi, according to his lawyer.  

Gvaramia, head of the Akhali party under the Coalition for Change umbrella, was detained Wednesday during police searches of opposition parties’ headquarters in the Georgian capital, according to media reports. 

Gvaramia was repeatedly hit in the stomach until he lost consciousness before being dragged into a police vehicle, according to local media reports. 

Gvaramia is Georgia’s former justice minister and the founder of the pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi. He was jailed from 2022 to 2023 on charges he and press freedom experts rejected as retaliatory. 

The high-profile arrest comes amid protests that have been continuing since the ruling Georgian Dream party said it was halting the country’s bid to start talks on joining the European Union. Opinion polls show that about 80% of Georgians support joining the EU. 

Gvaramia’s lawyer, Dito Sadzaglishvili, said Thursday that Gvaramia’s health is now “satisfactory.” 

“He believes that now, of course, is the time for the Georgian people to calmly, firmly and courageously continue to protest and fight against the Russian regime,” the lawyer said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

Gvaramia was arrested for “petty hooliganism” and not complying with police orders, his lawyer said. A court hearing is expected to take place within 48 hours of his arrest, according to Sadzaglishvili. 

Police have also detained Aleko Elisashvili, a leader of the Strong Georgia opposition party, as well as a leader of the youth protest movement, and at least six other members of opposition parties. 

The detentions come as thousands of pro-EU protesters continue to gather in Tbilisi, even as police respond with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 330 protesters have been arrested, with rights groups saying many have been beaten in detention. 

Governments, including the United States, have condemned the excessive use of force and criticized Georgian Dream for putting EU accession on hold. 

Journalists attacked, NGOs raided 

At least 50 journalists have been injured during violent police dispersals of demonstrations since they began on November 28, according to multiple reports. 

“The protection of journalists is a hallmark of democratic societies,” Gulnoza Said, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. 

“Georgian authorities’ failure to address the extensive and shocking police violence against journalists covering ongoing mass protests signals a clear departure from democratic values,” Said added. 

In addition to raiding the offices of opposition parties, police have raided the offices of various nongovernmental organizations, according to local media reports.  

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids targeted those who fostered violence during protests in an effort to overturn his government. “I wouldn’t call this repression; it is more of a preventive measure than repression,” he said. 

Protests initially erupted in late October after a contested election that allowed the Georgian Dream party to remain in power, even as monitoring groups said the vote was marked by an array of violations. 

Opposition parties and rights groups accuse Georgian Dream of pushing Georgia — which was once lauded as among the freest former Soviet republics — away from the West and closer to Russia. 

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognize the official election results and contested them in the constitutional court, which rejected her appeal on Tuesday. 

Gvaramia warned that the elections would be rigged when he spoke with VOA last October. 

“Either we have democracy on the ground, or we are Russia. There is no third option from my perspective,” Gvaramia told VOA at the time. 

Last year, Gvaramia was recognized with an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. 

“Democracy will never die,” he told VOA last year. “I don’t need anything except democracy.” 
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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Thursday to stay in office until the end of his term, due in 2027, and announced that he will name a new prime minister within days following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier. 

Macron came out fighting a day after a historic no-confidence vote at the National Assembly left France without a functioning government. He laid blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down Barnier’s government. 

They chose “Not to do but to undo,” he said. “They chose disorder.” 

The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front” and stressed: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.” 

He said he’d name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be. 

Earlier in the day, Macron “took note” of Barnier’s resignation, the Elysee presidential palace said in a statement. Barnier and other ministers will be “in charge of current affairs until the appointment of a new government,” the statement said. 

The no-confidence motion passed by 331 votes in the National Assembly, forcing Barnier to step down after just three months in office — the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history. 

Macron faces the critical task of naming a replacement capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority. Yael Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of Macron’s party, urged the president to move quickly. 

“I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister,” Braun-Pivet said Thursday on France Inter radio. “There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.” 

The process may prove challenging. Macron’s administration has yet to confirm any names, though French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum. 

Macron took more than two months to appoint Barnier after his party’s defeat in June’s legislative elections, raising concerns about potential delays this time. 

The no-confidence vote has galvanized opposition leaders, with some explicitly calling for Macron’s resignation. 

“I believe that stability requires the departure of the President of the Republic,” said Manuel Bompard, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, on BFM TV Wednesday night. 

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the Assembly, stopped short of calling for Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the President of the Republic will get stronger and stronger.” 

Macron, however, has dismissed such calls and ruled out new legislative elections. The French constitution does not call for a president to resign after his government was ousted by the National Assembly. 

“I was elected to serve until 2027, and I will fulfill that mandate,” he told reporters earlier this week. 

The constitution also says that new legislative elections cannot be held until at least July, creating a potential stalemate for policymakers. 

The political instability has heightened concerns about France’s economy, particularly its debt, which could rise to 7% of GDP next year without significant reforms. Analysts say that Barnier’s government downfall could push up French interest rates, digging the debt even further.
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This month marks 30 years since Ukraine signed an agreement to give up its nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest at the time. With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearing the three-year mark, Kyiv now calls the agreement with Moscow short-sighted. VOA Ukrainian’s Tatiana Vorozhko looks at the history of the deal. Videographer: Iurii Panin
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Ta’Qali, Malta — Ukraine’s foreign minister called Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov a “war criminal” Thursday as they both attended an international summit in Malta, the latter’s first visit to an EU member since the 2022 invasion.

Ukraine’s Andriy Sybiga also accused Moscow of being “the biggest threat to our common security” as the two foreign ministers sat on the same huge table at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also in Ta’Qali, near Valetta, for the talks, though officials said he had no plans to meet Lavrov.

“Russia is not a partner; it is the biggest threat to our common security. Russia’s participation in the OSCE is a threat to cooperation in Europe,” Sybiga told ministers from the 57-member body. 

“When Russians say they want peace they lie,” he said, adding: “Ukraine continues to fight for its right to exist.”

“And the Russian war criminal at this table must know: Ukraine will win this right and justice will prevail.”

‘Destabilizing’

Lavrov, who has been sanctioned by the European Union, had not visited an EU country since a December 2021 trip to Stockholm, again for an OSCE meeting, Russian media reported.

Sitting between the representatives of San Marino and Romania, he railed against the EU, NATO and in particular the United States.

He said the West was behind a “reincarnation of the Cold War, only now with a much greater risk of a transition to a hot one,” according to a transcript of his remarks from RIA Navosti.

He also accused Washington of military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region that sought to “destabilize the entire Eurasian continent.”

The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, and now counts 57 members from Turkey to Mongolia, including Britain and Canada as well as the United States.

It helps its members coordinate issues such as human rights and arms control, but Lavrov at the last ministerial summit a year ago in North Macedonia accused the OSCE of becoming an “appendage” of NATO and the EU.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organization, and boycotted the Skopje summit over Lavrov’s attendance.

Summit host Ian Borg, Malta’s foreign minister, opened proceedings Thursday with a call for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

Blinken also accused Lavrov — who at that point was no longer in the room — of spreading a “tsunami of misinformation” and blamed Moscow for an escalation in Ukraine.

Many other participants railed against Moscow’s aggression at a delicate time for Kyiv.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to press for a quick deal to end the war, leaving Kyiv scrambling to obtain security guarantees from Western allies and supplies of key weaponry before the January inauguration.

‘Channels of communication’

In 2022, OSCE host Poland refused to let Lavrov attend their summit, and Poland’s minister questioned why Moscow was still allowed to be part of the organization.

A spokesman for Malta told AFP on Wednesday that while he faces an EU asset freeze, there was no travel ban on Lavrov, and he was invited to “keep some channels of communication open.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that a number of Western countries were “using this platform for their own interests,” arguing that the body had been “Ukrainianized.”

But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Malta that the OSCE “stands for security and freedom and we will defend it.”

The OSCE has been paralyzed since the Ukraine invasion, as Russia has vetoed several major decisions, which require consensus.

The posts of secretary general and three other top officials have been vacant since September because of a lack of agreement over their successors.

Ambassadors have reached agreement on Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu as new secretary general to replace Germany’s Helga Maria Schmid, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The ministers in Malta will also be seeking to agree which country will chair the OSCE in 2026 and 2027.

Russia had blocked NATO member Estonia from holding the chairmanship this year. Finland, which joined NATO last year, is up for the post in 2025.

The OSCE sends observers to conflicts as well as elections around the world. It also runs programs that aim to combat human trafficking and ensure media freedom.

But its efforts have been hampered by an inability to agree a budget since 2021.
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