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For many Russian migrants with little to no English knowledge, the Russian-speaking community in Brighton Beach, a coastline neighborhood in Coney Island, Brooklyn, is the best chance to get a job and start a new life in New York. But for Simon, a trans man from Moscow who is seeking asylum in the US, it […]
Russia
‘No genocide of ethnic minorities!’: Russian Kalmyks say Putin’s military draft is targeting them disproportionally
On Sept. 23, a group of Kalmyks — an Asian ethnic minority in Russia — called for the end of partial mobilization (military draft) in Russia, which was announced by Vladimir Putin two days prior. They claimed that the process targets the ethnic population in disproportionately large numbers. The protest took place outside of the […]
Russian International Students Caught in the Economic Crossfire of the War in Ukraine
Blue and yellow clothes dotted the hundred-strong crowd at Washington Square Park for the second Sunday in a row. Ukraine’s azure and gold banner waved in the air as its bearers paraded around the park’s iconic fountain at the heart of New York University. Activists hoisted signs with calls for peace and demands for an […]
LGBTQ Ukrainians Face Persecution In Russian Invasion
Yevhen Trachuk left Kyiv on Feb. 28. After a week of hiding in metro stations at night to avoid bombs and spending his days drinking and smoking in his Kyiv apartment, Trachuk got on a train and went west, to the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Trachuk is a 25-year-old LGBTQ rights activist and works with […]
LGBTQ Asylum Seekers Look For a New Life in the US
Alex needed a place to escape. With only one year left in his University studies, he could no longer stand the threats and physical violence he faced in his home country, even if that meant leaving his family, friends, and entire life in Russia behind. Now, just a few years later, Alex, who did not […]