Putin’s crackdown casts a wide net, ensnaring the LGBTQ+ community, lawyers and many others

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — It’s not just opposition politicians who are targeted in the crackdown by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years. Also falling victim are independent voices as well as those who don’t conform to what the state sees as the country’s “traditional values.” Russia’s once-thriving free press after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been reduced to either state-controlled outlets or independent media operating from abroad. Prominent rights groups have been outlawed or classified as agents of foreigners. Lawyers who have worked with dissidents have been prosecuted or have fled abroad. LGBTQ+ activists have been labeled “extremists.”