Putin refuse to break silence on gay issues
10/07/2006
By
Nikolay Alekseev, Human Rights LGBT Project GayRussia.ru
Putin refuse to break silence on gay issues
During the second web cast of his Presidential era, Putin ignored all questions about sexual minorities
Today during 2 hours Vladimir Putin joined a webcast organized by BBC answering questions that were sent to him over the last 7 days through the Russian news portal Yandex. Among the 160’000 questions sent, the President answered 49 questions that he choose among the most popular.
Questions asked dealt with serious issues, including pensions, military conscription, xenophobia and corruption, as well as with less down-to-earth ones, such as whether the president plans to employ humanoid robots to defend the nation.
Western audiences appear to be more concerned with alleged human rights abuses in Russia and with its president's private life.
The web cast came only 8 days before the G8 summit that will take place in St Petersburg under Russian rotating presidency on July 15-17.
Russian LGBT will stay in the shadow as all questions around sexual minorities or gay prides in Moscow, though very popular, were carefully skipped. Bitter or used to it ? Nikolai Alekseev, one of the Moscow Pride organizer commented " We did not believe that Putin would answer any questions concerning sexual minorities. He is just not ready to answer on this topic yet, prefering to maintain the status quo for now" Asked about the reasons of this status quo, Alekseev replied "Putin's advisors do not want him to go against the orthodox church but at the same time, they understand the negative effect, abroad, of a support to orthodox in their anti-gay cruisade"
Topics around Iran, North Korea, military conscription were answered. To a question about legalization of the soft drug, the President answered “Russia is a member of international agreements under which marijuana is a prohibited drug. Russia will adhere to its international obligations in this sphere”.
The first webcast took place during Putin's first mandate in 2001 when he received 10’000 questions.
GayRussia.Ru
http://www.gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=6225
During the second web cast of his Presidential era, Putin ignored all questions about sexual minorities
Today during 2 hours Vladimir Putin joined a webcast organized by BBC answering questions that were sent to him over the last 7 days through the Russian news portal Yandex. Among the 160’000 questions sent, the President answered 49 questions that he choose among the most popular.
Questions asked dealt with serious issues, including pensions, military conscription, xenophobia and corruption, as well as with less down-to-earth ones, such as whether the president plans to employ humanoid robots to defend the nation.
Western audiences appear to be more concerned with alleged human rights abuses in Russia and with its president's private life.
The web cast came only 8 days before the G8 summit that will take place in St Petersburg under Russian rotating presidency on July 15-17.
Russian LGBT will stay in the shadow as all questions around sexual minorities or gay prides in Moscow, though very popular, were carefully skipped. Bitter or used to it ? Nikolai Alekseev, one of the Moscow Pride organizer commented " We did not believe that Putin would answer any questions concerning sexual minorities. He is just not ready to answer on this topic yet, prefering to maintain the status quo for now" Asked about the reasons of this status quo, Alekseev replied "Putin's advisors do not want him to go against the orthodox church but at the same time, they understand the negative effect, abroad, of a support to orthodox in their anti-gay cruisade"
Topics around Iran, North Korea, military conscription were answered. To a question about legalization of the soft drug, the President answered “Russia is a member of international agreements under which marijuana is a prohibited drug. Russia will adhere to its international obligations in this sphere”.
The first webcast took place during Putin's first mandate in 2001 when he received 10’000 questions.
GayRussia.Ru
http://www.gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=6225
