Pointing out the homosexuality of Gabriel Attal, senior Russian official Pyotr Tolstoy judged the French government to be “decadent” and made up “partly of perverts”. A speech reflecting homophobic Russian policy.
Pyotr Tolstoy’s charge against the French government continues. After threatening to “kill all French soldiers who will come to Ukrainian soil” and having openly mocked the warnings of Emmanuel Macron, the vice-president of the Duma – the Russian equivalent of the National Assembly – attacked the Prime Minister. According to this close friend of Vladimir Putin who gave an interview to BFMTVthe appointment of Gabriel Attal to Matignon is a sign that France “is governed in part by perverts”.
Referring to the prime minister being openly gay, the senior official asked: “Can we really think in the 21st that it’s not decadent to have such special people in government?” A clearly homophobic speech in which Piotr Tolstoy assured that “for us” – meaning the government and the Russian authorities – to be homosexual is “to be special, even perverse”.
“No right to open propaganda” of LGBTQ+
Pyotr Tolstoy’s statements are consistent with the increasingly repressive measures put in place in Russia against the LGBTQ+ community. Since 2022, a law has banned in the country any form of LGBTQ+ “propaganda” in the media, on the Internet, in cultural works or simply during community gatherings. The international LGBT movement was also banned from Russia by a decision of the Supreme Court in November 2023. Before that, the “propaganda” of “non-traditional sexual relations” had already been banned since 2013, but only aimed at minors. Laws claimed by the vice-president of the Duma who affirms that homosexual people “do not have the right to open propaganda of their way of life” in Russia, adding all the same that “their private life is protected”.
A protection which seems ultimately limited in such a homophobic context. In recent weeks, since the Supreme Court’s decision, police interventions in establishments open to LGBTQ+ people have increased, as have convictions for the distribution of photos showing rainbow flags or photos of couples. homosexuals giving each other a simple kiss.
But Pyotr Tolstoy’s speech is not new and it uses elements of language already used by Vladimir Putin. The President of Russia, in power for a quarter of a century, has long advocated the traditional family model and opposes it to Western societies sometimes described as “decadent” or “Satanist”.