“They are trying to seize power in Russia,” and my little LGBT organization is the first target: Russian edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 1992

Nikolai Alekseev, the activist who has for long enjoyed a near-monopoly on Western media coverage of LGBT issues in Russia, had yet another social-media meltdown last night, spewing a flood of unequivocally anti-Semitic Tweets and Facebook posts. This is the latest eruption among several in recent weeks; John Aravosis covers the repellent content here. This morning, Alekseev followed up with an interview given to the independent news website Slon.ru. Here is a translation, completed with the help of Russian-speaking friends. (Please, if you notice any inaccuracies, note them in the comments.) This may at least settle the fears of many of Alekseev’s diehard fans and supporters who still suspect he’s been hacked or made away with, and can’t bring themselves to admit he’s saying these things himself. Or, the human propensity for naive belief being what it is, maybe it won’t. Anyway, let the man speak for himself. [NB. Alekseev Tweeted this article this morning, and posted it on his Facebook account. So, unless the same Kremlin puppeteers who kidnapped him and hacked his passwords also impersonated him in talking to Slon, one can assume that he approves of how he was represented in the interview.]

Alekseev: “Americans do not help the LGBT community in Russia, they just undermine it” 

Ilya Shepelin

Alekseev, from Slon.ru

Today, the most famous Russian LGBT activist, the head of human rights project GayRussia Nikolai Alekseev, lashed out at U.S. gay organizations. In particular, he called their leaders “Jews, who want to control the LGBT movement in Russia.” Recently, foreign LGBT rights activists have come out with frequent proposals to take action against Russia because of a law banning “propaganda of homosexuality among minors,” but Alekseev’s statements seem perhaps even sharper than the reaction of the Russian authorities. Slon contacted Alekseev, to find out what angers Russian LGBT activists.

- Nikolai, why do you have to use anti-Semitic slurs against members of Western LGBT organizations?
- I don’t understand what ‘s the big deal? They are trying to seize power in Russia – power over the LGBT movement. For example, right now in America, there is a group of people who are actively doing everything to frustrate my trip to the U.S. They put pressure on Human Rights Watch [sic: Human Rights First initially invited Alekseev to a U.S. meeting], so I wouldn’t go to Washington in early December. They just bombard them with emails and all that they’ve got, so that I was disinvited. Moreover, this whole campaign is about the boycott of the Olympic Games and Russian vodka, which not supported by the active part of the LGBT community in Russia.

The entire campaign which they’re now cranking up is pure PR for a topical subject which has recently come up around Russia. They don’t help the LGBT community in Russia, but simply undermine it. They sit there for themselves in New York and London, and they are not at risk. And we are here. Therefore, the whole of their activity does nothing but harm. The way they operate – and behind the scenes to boot. They say something and say they have freedom of speech, but there is no there is no freedom of speech! All this is a myth. I played there in the University of Harvard [sic: Alekseev is referring to a lecture at Columbia University in New York in 2011], so they just went to the rector, and urged him to cancel my lecture there! [sic: I was at Columbia at the time, and nobody urged that.]

- I don’t really understand why you disturb them.
- But I do not do what they want. I don’t support their methods – the boycott of the Olympic Games in Sochi, the absolutely ridiculous boycott of vodka. They operate by their own methods, which we have to accept and act the way they should. But we will not! All of our court cases and complaints to the European Court were initiated by us. Any suggestions as to how to deal with the laws on propaganda, they pooh-pooh. But no one listens to us. They just continue to do their PR.

- And tell me, what is this gay lobby in America?
- Oh, yes, there are a lot of them! You read what they’re writing in their articles! It feels like they’ve got nothing better to do than read my Facebook and Twitter, and search out the things that they find, in their opinion, unacceptable. Now they’re trying in every possible way to attribute some anti-Semitism to me!

- But you called them “Yids”  [жидами] a few hours ago on Twitter.
- Yid – is that an offensive anti-Semitic word?

Lyudmila told the truth: Lyudmila Alekseeva

- Actually, it’s a term of contempt for the Jews [евреев].
- I’ve been called a fa**ot [п*******м] on every corner, and I can’t call someone a Yid? I don’t run to the courts when I’m name-called. [sic: Alekseev famously sued Lyudmila Alekseeva, no relation, the widely revered 86-year-old leader in the Russian human rights movement, for libel, Peter-Tatchell-style, after she called him a “liar.”] 

- If you’re name-called, I think it’s no reason to name-call the Jews [евреев].
- I didn’t name-call the Jews [евреев]! [sic: check Alekseev’s Twitter feed.] I said that there is a group of people in America which is engaged in clandestine subversive activities. It includes pornographer Michael Lucas, who fled from here in 1994, journalist Masha Gessen – now she’s settled in America, under the pretext of these laws on “promotion” [of homosexuality], just to get away from here quickly, though she’s not doing anything for the LGBT community. Twice she took a job, and then they drove her out from everywhere. All these people are promoting their agenda, and it doesn’t suit us. I said nothing about Jews in general. [sic] I talked about specific people in America who are engaged in such activities and who have tried to disrupt [my] event there. Well, what kind of freedom of speech can you speak of there?

- And you’re trying to say that American LGBT organizations should just take your position?
- No, but here all the leading organizations opposed the boycott of the Olympic Games, and opposed the boycott of vodka.

- But these organizations, quite frankly, aren’t likely to reflect the views of the majority of Russian gays.
- And who can represent the views of anybody else, unless there is an election? You can say that something reflects the opinion of the majority of Jews [евреев] in Russia? What do you mean, referendums were held there?

- There are organizations that have some authority.
- I’m talking about them – about the active LGBT community. People who are on the front lines and fight for their rights. And what ordinary members of the LGBT community think doesn’t matter, because they do not affect the development of the situation.

- Foreign LGBT organizations do not have the right to express their opinion?
- For God’s sake. But what are they trying to do? To do what’s  best for the LGBT community in Russia, or to make a universal noise and get more grants?They are doing it for their own sake, or for Russia? If it’s for their own sake, then let them be. And tomorrow I can arrange a protest against Obama, for example. And then what?

- It is not exactly clear what successes are due to these active LGBT organizations in Russia.
- Very big ones. The first victory in the European Court of Human Rights (the case of “Alekseev v. Russia”), the victory at the UN Committee on Human Rights about the law “On the promotion of homosexuality” in the Ryazan region. There the law was adopted in 2006, back then nobody was interested in it – now everybody pounces on [the issue]. Now in Ryazan, a court is reviewing the case – and the review would be a terrible blow to Ryazan, and to the federal laws “On the promotion of homosexuality”! And we have a lot of achievements!

- Of course. Only these achievements take place outside of the Russian Federation, in Strasbourg and Brussels.
- So these solutions will just have to do! If there are dozens of such decisions and Russia doesn’t take them into account, it’ll just be removed from the Council of Europe! Because the issue has already been before the Cabinet of Ministers of the Council of Europe for two years, and every six months they require an explanation from Russia. And it won’t last forever!

- However, the situation for the rights of gays in Russia is certainly not getting any better. And I have to say, among some of my gay friends you have a dubious reputation. I’ve heard that there have been cases when you were supposed to come to the unauthorized gay pride parades, and don’t show up.
- When was that? I went to all of them except 2012. Then I did not go simply because at the time my father was dying – for your information. You all just show up, and I’m working!

- Well, why do we just show up? Because you will too. Now, remember, you spread information that the City Council had agreed for the first time to allow a gay pride parade in Moscow, but it was not true.
- Oh, how do you know whether it was true or not true?

- City Hall immediately denied your claim. You didn’t show any documents that allegedly were a tentative agreement.
- Denied! And so what?

- It turns out that you lied.
- No, that isn’t true! So what?

- The fact is, it’s pretty sad.