A Gay Russian, Exiled in Ireland
Evgeny Shtorn and Alexander Kondakov were living together in St. Petersburg when Vladimir Putin began his crackdown on the L.G.B.T.Q. movement in Russia, passing laws that prevented gay \u201cpropaganda.\u201d Kondakov is a scholar of the movement, and Shtorn has studied the sociology of hate crimes against gay men. The couple also worked for an N.G.O. that received foreign funding, which made them appear particularly suspicious to Russian authorities. After Shtorn\u2019s citizenship was rescinded, he became vulnerable to pressure from the F.S.B., the Russian security agency, which tried to make him an informant. Finally Shtorn decided to flee, seeking refuge as a stateless person in Ireland, where Masha Gessen spoke with him. Gessen says that Putin\u2019s recent targeting of L.G.B.T. people is perfectly in line with his methods. \u201c[We] make the perfect scapegoat, because we stand in for everything,\u201d she says. \u201cWe stand in for the West. We stand in all the things that have changed in the last quarter century that make you uncomfortable. And, of course, no Russian thinks they\u2019ve ever met a gay person in person\u2014so that makes it really easy to create that image of \u2018the villainous queer people.\u2019 \u201d\nThis segment originally aired June 10, 2019. Since that time, Shtorn received refugee status, and was reunited with Kondakov in Ireland. They married in 2023.