I don’t like this, but my view is, it’s an issue for the Russian people to solve. Reason: me talking in the west about Russian state-sponsored homophobia is not going to change the government’s policies, but it will tend to swell the 24/7 anti-Russia hysteria in American and Europe, which is a real danger insofar as it gears people up for war. I certainly wish Putin wouldn’t hand the west talking points. But Russia right now is an important ally of AES states, and so it’s best to hand that entire fight to comrades living in Russia – nothing we do will make the situation better, and could very likely actually make things worse.