Journalists of largest Russian-language LGBTQ+ site forced into exile after ‘extremist’ label

Journalists of Parni+, the largest Russian-language LGBTQ+ publication, have spoken out after fleeing the country since the website was labelled an “extremist organisation”.

Parni+, which previously reported PinkNews had been banned in Russia, was founded in 2008, originally as a resource about HIV for gay and bisexual men. Since then, it has evolved to cover all aspects of LGBTQ+ life, including discrimination, human rights and migration.

In April 2026, it was branded an “extremist organisation” in a Russian court after a lawsuit from the Russian Ministry of Justice, due to its coverage of LGBTQ+ people and issues, amid the rise of the country’s “LGBT propaganda” laws.

Since, the majority of the team was forced into exile, with some still in places it is unsafe for Russian LGBTQ+ activists.

‘I never wanted to leave like this’

Found and editor-in-chief Yevgeny Pisemsky wasn’t surprised by the “extremist” label, but fears for users of the site, saying: “If someone in Russia shares our post or article, writes to us, sends us their story, they’re not taking a potential risk. The state is trying to make the very connection between us and our audience dangerous.”

Pisemsky added: “I’d always wanted to live abroad for a while, but I never wanted to leave like this. I had just 24 hours to get out after criminal charges were opened against me. I bought a ticket, flew to the UK and applied for political asylum.

“The hardest part isn’t adapting to a new country. It’s losing the professional and personal life you’ve spent years building.”

‘I loved that life and still grieve its loss’

Itil Tyomnaya “felt a certain sense of relief” after the lawsuit, adduing: “I don’t think I’m capable of feeling much about it personally now. I can only register the facts, almost as if they’re happening to someone else.”

She had kept an “emergency go bag” since 2019, but hoped she’d never have to use it. “In 2022, a week after the full-scale invasion began, my apartment was searched,” she said. “The warrant had actually been issued three months earlier. At that point it became obvious that I would have to leave.”

Tyomnaya added: “I left my entire life behind in Russia: my career, all the friends I’d been making since I was thirteen, the person closest to me, and countless things that can never be replaced, including a comic book about my own life that I’d been drawing since I was sixteen. I loved that life and still grieve its loss. No matter how comfortable my life is now, that grief doesn’t simply disappear.”

‘I would have ended up dying on the streets’

Damir Musin, who joined the team in August 2023 as a peer counsellor, has been forced to move between shelters in Georgia, Montenegro, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Armenia, and Spain.

“My emigration has been hell,” Musin said. “I lived in shelters, at times I went hungry, buying the cheapest sprouting potatoes I could find and eating only that.

“In Madrid, I spent three months living in a homeless shelter, where my health finally collapsed. I fainted, suffered a hypertensive crisis, and my asthma became much worse. The lowest point came when I was robbed. They took my backpack with every document I had, my laptop, and a hard drive containing 20 years of work. Without charities and ordinary people I would have ended up dying on the streets of Madrid.

“People often say, ‘At least once you’ve left Russia you’re safe’, to which I say: try and live in exile with no savings and no support. The only thing you really have is freedom. In every other sense, your life is reset to zero. Out here, we are safe only from the Russian state.”

‘Am I coping? Not sure, so it’s difficult to say’

Yaroslav Rasputin joined the team in December 2022, and fears: “Any country could deport me. No country other than Russia has any obligation to protect me – and Russia does, but it won’t.”

Rasputin added: “It’s very hard. I am exhausted, and my depression has become more severe. I see my psychotherapist regularly and take medication under supervision.

“Am I coping? Not sure, so it’s difficult to say.”

‘The state is trying to make the very fact of knowing you toxic’

Vadim Vaganov, who applied for a job at Parni+ in 2021 after having known of the site for a long time, said: “I’ve been charged in five separate cases under the ‘foreign agent’ legislation and seven more for ‘LGBT propaganda’. In May, the authorities also opened a criminal case against me and placed me on Russia’s federal wanted list.”

He added: “These cases don’t affect just me. My uncle was turned down for a government job because he has a ‘foreign agent’ relative. Border guards questioned one of my friends after finding my contact details in his phone.

“More recently, another friend was added to Russia’s register of terrorists and extremists. He believes that it was partly because he’d publicly mentioned my Telegram channel and spoken in my support.”

Vaganov went on: “The state is trying to make the very fact of knowing you toxic.”

‘The state is trying to erase LGBTQ+ people from public life’

Despite the enormous changes that have been forced upon their lives, the journalists are keen to keep going.

Pisemsky said: “We know that there are people in Russia reading us, and they are frightened and lonely, they need to see that someone is still speaking to them in a normal human voice.”

“By branding us ‘extremists’, the state is trying to erase LGBTQ+ people from public life,” Pisemsky added. “It wants people to once again sit alone with its anxiety somewhere in Russia and think, ‘Maybe there’s something wrong with me.’

“So our mission has become even clearer. Parni+ isn’t just a website, it’s a connection for the community.”

Musin went on: “Legally, we’re already beyond the reach of Russian law. The only real threat isn’t the government, it’s money. If Parni+ ever goes silent, it won’t be because the state has won, it’ll be because we’ve run out of resources. And, to be honest, that would be the most painful outcome of all.”

Parni+ is still running and publishing articles, despite Russia’s work against them.

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