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Richard Foltz, Professor of Religions and Cultures, Concordia University

Homophobia as a wartime marketing tool: Some Russians fear the West will make them gay

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, hands a bunch of flowers to Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill during a ceremony presenting him the Order of St. Andrew in the Kremlin in Moscow in November 2021. Both men have accused the West of trying to impose LGBTQ+ rights on Russia. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The Russian Book Union recently sent a letter to the Russian Duma, one of the chambers of the country’s parliament, expressing concern that a proposed bill expanding the scope of forbidden LGBTQ+ “propaganda” could lead to the banning of works of classic literature, including books by Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Ostrovsky and many others.

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