The talk will consist of three parts. First, I will provide an overview of the development of LGBTQ communities in the Russian Federation since de-criminalisation of homosexuality in 1993. I will focus on the period between 2013-22 when LGBTQ agenda had become central to Russian political, social and cultural life. Then I will discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on LGBTQ communities. I will present some new finding stemming from my recent research on LGBTQ migration out of the Russian Federation in 2022. In the final part, I will conceptualise these findings, making use of queer theory and exilic identities. In my discussion, I will pay attention to visual and digital communication, and I will draw on a large number of cases that are rarely discussed in western research and media.
