Kathmandu (Pahichan) June 22 – A Russian LGBTI activist who writes for the newspaper that broke the story on the anti-gay crackdown in Chechnya is currently on sabbatical in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Elena Kostyuchenko, who has been a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, arrived in New York City in January and plans to remain in the U.S. through the end of the year. Kostyuchenko noted to the Washington Blade on June 11 during an interview in Dupont Circle that she has received fellowships from Columbia University and the City University of New York\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kostyuchenko, 30, acknowledged she and her colleagues received threats after they began to report on the anti-gay crackdown in Chechnya last year.<\/p>\n
The threats prompted Elena Milashina, one of Kostyuchenko\u2019s colleagues who broke the story, to flee her Moscow home.<\/p>\n
An advisor to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov \u2014 a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin \u2014 described Novaya Gazeta reporters as \u201cenemies of our faith and our homeland\u201d in a speech he delivered at the main mosque in the Chechen capital of Grozny shortly after news of the crackdown broke. Novaya Gazeta in a statement said 15,000 people had gathered at the mosque for the speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI jumped on the story just to share the danger with my colleagues,\u201d Kostyuchenko told the Blade. \u201cIt\u2019s how we\u2019re doing things at Novaya. If some topic\u2019s extremely dangerous, we try to involve as many journalists as we can to spread the danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasia Baburova, Stanislav Markelov and Natalia Estemirova are the Novaya Gazeta reporters and contributors who have been killed since Kostyuchenko began writing for the newspaper. The State Department in its\u00a02017 human rights report<\/a>\u00a0notes violence against journalists and bloggers \u201care among the most significant human rights issues\u201d in Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like every three or four or five years we lose somebody,\u201d said Kostyuchenko. \u201cWhen we lose somebody it\u2019s crazy. It makes us angry and actually it drives us to work more.\u201d<\/p>\n Kostyuchenko told the Blade the threats that Kadyrov\u2019s advisor made against Novaya Gazeta reporters \u201cmeant nothing.\u201d Kostyuchenko then compared the threats to the risks that firefighters and police officers face.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s not nice, but life in Russia is actually dangerous for everybody, not just for journalists,\u201d added Kostyuchenko as she began to laugh. \u201cIt\u2019s not just like you stop being a journalist and your life becomes nice and safe.\u201d<\/p>\n Kostyuchenko is among the 10 LGBTI activists who were arrested in Moscow\u2019s Red Square as they sang the Russian national anthem just before the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics that took place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.<\/p>\n Latnik was with Kostyuchenko when she spoke with the Blade.<\/p>\n \u201cThey tortured people,\u201d said Latnik as Kostyuchenko listened.<\/p>\n The police released Kostyuchenko, Latnik and the other activists a few hours after their arrest. Kostyuchenko told the Blade they \u201cweren\u2019t charged with anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey turned really ugly,\u201d she said, joking she cannot remember how many times she has been arrested at an LGBTI rights protest or event. \u201cI don\u2019t know why. Maybe they liked the Olympics and they felt offended. They were crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n The protest took place less than a year after Putin signed a law that bans the promotion of so-called gay propaganda to minors.<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s overall LGBTI rights record overshadowed the 2014 Winter Olympics. This issue, along with the Kremlin\u2019s overall human rights record, also threatens to overshadow the 2018 World Cup that began at Moscow\u2019s Luzhniki Stadium on June 14.<\/p>\n The Moscow Times earlier this month\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0Cossacks \u2014 paramilitary groups that have previously targeted LGBTI and feminist groups \u2014 in Rostov-on-Don will report to the police same-sex couples who kiss in public during the World Cup.<\/p>\nKostyuchenko among activists arrested during Olympics protest<\/h2>\n