Yes, it's beautiful, but the government and all of the hate crimes going on? no. The same goes for the middle eastern countries.
I mean people dont mind anti-gay mentality when they travel to Egypt or Tunnis, either. And Russia is extremely large with a lot of different ethnics, Im sure not everyone has the same opinions as their government. I dont take traveling there as "supporting" them, I would really like to visit russian cities on european side and russian nature on asian side by taking Trans-Siberian Trailway.
It's 100% true.
I literally cannot try to be masculine.
If you dress like a conservative man, nothing wont happen you. Russians are not a bunch of barbarians, Im sure you could find a lot of metrosexuals in Moscow. Plus, the law is not against being gay, but against public loud propaganda of homosexuality.
C'mon, no one's gonna touch you here if you won't tell anyone that you're gay. Like can't y'all just fukc guys without participating in prides and telling everyone that you're gay?
Yeah, the politics is sick. But that's it. It's just average European country.
Not to live, but I'd visit. It's probably one of those countries that's nowhere near as bad as its painted to be?
Kinda. I won't say I've seen the full picture Western mass-media draws about us, I'm not fond of reading tons of press, but, judging from some hysterical papers...
Quote:
Originally posted by Bríseis
Of course, beautiful nature, fascinating history, culture, herritage and people.
The anti-gay law is sad, but things arent as bad as the OP is exaggerrating it.
You would be fined for breaking the law - promoting homosexualism to minors, including erratic homosexual behavior in front of minors - and the fine is 4000-5000 rubles/100-150$ for regular citizens, 40 000-50 000 rubles/1,000-1,500$ for government officials, and 400 000-500 000 rubles/$10,000-$15,000 for legal entities, e.g. corporations, but not killed or beaten.
Killing or beating gay person, just like every other person is a serious crime in Russia and everyone caught or convicted from doing it is arrested and punished. Of course the hate crimes and homophobic attacks happen there, sometimes by police officers, but the LGBT of Russia and Russian human rights organizations are working well to protect the gays and prevent it. The situation is similar to many other states, including Alabama or Texas.
The positive changes in Russian society are slowly made tho, but with Russia its always two steps forward and one backwards. Russia is very old, conservative, with deep religious traditions and often stiff when it comes to embracing changes in society and are known for handling everything at their own pace. But hopefully they will move forward (as they often end up doing) and embrace their large gay community in the future. They just need more time, like with everything they do.
What worries me more is the growing tension between Russia, US and EU, the return to the cold war rhetoric, thinking and propaganda (the misconceptions in this thread are also result of that). Thats potentialy very dangerous.
There's People Friendship University here with a lot of latin, african and other people. And I can tell you that all of them are alive.
But there's a maniac in the university right now who's been killing Asian people with an axe tho
Kinda. I won't say I've seen the full picture Western mass-media draws about us, I'm not fond of reading tons of press, but, judging from some hysterical papers...
1.) As a westerner, I'm told that Russia's government tell's its people that: MH-17 was "loaded with the corpses of the victims of MH-370 and shot down by Ukraine to make the Pro-Russian rebels and Russia itself look bad."
I'm really not even sure of started what in this whole conflict, but I heard Ukraine may have started it.
2.) Then there's tension in videos like this. a real discussion can't even be had because both sides are too combative.
Sure. Everything is not about gay there I would love to learn about their history and visit the major places and visit Moscow and see those awesome buildings also at the people complaining about the anti-gay there, get over it. Not everybody likes gays and you should respect their opinion. Damn.
There's People Friendship University here with a lot of latin, african and other people. And I can tell you that all of them are alive. But there's a maniac in the university right now who's been killing Asian people with an axe tho
omg
I'd visit, but I wouldn't stay long. I just wanna see St. Petersburg and Moscow.
I would love to learn about their history and visit the major places and visit Moscow and see those awesome buildings 
also at the people complaining about the anti-gay there, get over it. Not everybody likes gays and you should respect their opinion. Damn.