American "conservatives" are over here drooling at the possibilities.

This is just standard fascism. They need a constant stream of enemies weak enough that they can't defend themselves. Whom they can paint as responsible for all a societies woes.

Fascism 101. We see Republicans employing that heavily here in the United States.

That's it. Putin and the Russian conservatives are going after gays because it's an easy win with their conservative base, and they can claim moral superiority. Also distracts from Ukraine.

There you said it. They don't care about gay people. They need an easy win with conservative public before future (mock) elections and to distract people from Ukraine. And they also want a weapon to proclaim anyone they dislike an extremist.

Can you prove you aren't gay? Let's see. It'a either you record a video of apologizing for being gay, or we stuff a broom up your ass and you record a video of apologizing for being gay 🤗 Either way, 10 years in a joint.

I've recently seen a good article in a ru-language blogosphere. These pieces of shit who climbed to the power in the 90s and 00s break every ladder to their positions, they want to establish themselves as new nobles, and they need a variety of tools to persecute whoever they dislike. They want the good ol' serfdom. They build it as we speak.

It's not bad if you are gay and noble. Gref, Volodin, others are gossiped to be gay. Rather it's bad to be not in their club, like most do. Then you are in a risk of being persecuted and robbed of everything over nothing.

It's 21th century and neo-feudalism is on the rise! Fuck, I hate it here.

They need a new enemy every now and then. If the current enemy happens to be exterminated, they'll need one sooner, but they'll need a new one anyways.

Russia has always been anti-LGBT+. Stalin called them abomination and Putin is just a dimestore version of that monster.

Ironically, Russians think they are fighting Nazis in Ukraine.

"But Vladimir, you were never going to find any Nazis out there! The Nazis were in you all along!"

"Seriously? I'm being arrested for being gay?" Extremely gay.

Russia has had this problem for decades, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union this was a problem, who would want to live in communist Russia when you could live in a democracy in the west instead, and get paid for the privilege? Anyone with a brain left. After all, all the people smuggling through the Berlin wall was going in one direction.

But yeah their current actions are making it far worse.

Putin doesn't care about the future of Russia though, he only cares about his legacy. The Ukrainian invasion was supposed to be the start of the second Soviet Union. The plan was to also invade places like Poland (of course that was a terrible plan that would have almost certainly resulted in the third world war but there you go). To fall at the first hurdle like this is particularly embarrassing and dangerous because it makes him look weak, and in Russia you do not want to look weak because if you do you end up dead eventually.

If Putin manages to die of old age I'll be amazed

It’s what fascists do. Franco did it, Hitler, Pinochet, etc. anything that can be perceived as subversive must be taken care of.

Actual quotes from Hexbears that I got when discussing Russia with them:

"Those reactionary shitstains [the Russian government] has little to be proud of."

"Russia is extremly Reactionary [...] thats why Russia has a Real Problem with "White Supremacy" , [and] no problems with hunting down LGBTQ+ [...]"

Now I don't exactly see anybody on Hexbear presently discussing this particular bit of news about crackdowns on LGBT+, but I'll go post about this news on Hexbear and see how the people there react. I have a feeling it's going to be consistent with my previous experiences discussing Russia with Hexbears, which is also going to be the reaction that I'd expect from an instance that skews heavily LGBT+.

It's because they are campists. They don't actually care about egalitarianism. Or leftism.

My daughter is queer and if Trump wins, we will probably have to seek refuge in Canada. I have an uncle there, which will also help, but this is a good resource. Thanks.

That's because they're all 12 years old and have no brain. When you talk to them it's quite clear they don't actually know what they're talking about. My favourite thing to do is quote events and dates at them of things that that didn't happen, and most of the time they don't pick up on it.