The Guardian

'Alone and in fear': ordeal of married gay couple forced to flee Russia

Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky followed Russian law but their Danish marriage put their lives at risk
Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky and Pavel Stotsko (right) wed in Denmark, where same-sex marriages have been legal since 2012.

On a cold January evening, as plainclothes police officers hammered relentlessly on the door of their flat near Moscow, newlywed gay couple Pavel Stotsko and Yevgeny Voitsekhovsky began to consider fleeing Russia.

“It was a siege situation. The police were in the entrance to the building, and all around it,” Stotsko said this week from the Netherlands, where the couple, who are both 28, were recently granted asylum. “We sat in the flat like in a prison cell, totally alone and in fear,” said Voitsekhovsky.

The two men’s problems with the Russian

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian4 min read
‘Everyone Owns At Least One Pair’: $75bn Sneaker Industry Unboxed In Gold Coast Exhibition
What was the world’s first sneaker? Was it made in the 1830s, when the UK’s Liverpool Rubber Company fused canvas tops to rubber soles, creating beach footwear for the Victorian middle class? Or was it a few decades later, about 1870, with the invent
The Guardian4 min read
Lawn And Order: The Evergreen Appeal Of Grass-cutting In Video Games
Jessica used to come for tea on Tuesdays, and all she wanted to do was cut grass. Every week, we’d click The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s miniature disc into my GameCube and she’d ready her sword. Because she was a couple of years younger than m
The Guardian4 min read
‘Almost Like Election Night’: Behind The Scenes Of Spotify Wrapped
There’s a flurry of activities inside Spotify’s New York City’s offices in the Financial District. “It’s almost like election night,” Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same t

Related Books & Audiobooks