St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov believes that Russian servicemen understand well what they are fighting for in Ukraine because they saw gender-neutral bathrooms in Ukrainian schools.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian leadership has struggled to explain its war goals. However, in December 2023, Vladimir Putin stated that they remain unchanged.
“Those who walked through the Ukrainized version of Donbas with a machine gun in hand understand well what we are fighting for. These guys who saw bathrooms in schools, where instead of two rooms – for girls and boys – there are three rooms – for girls, boys, and gender-neutral people, do not need to explain what values we defend,” Beglov wrote on Telegram after meeting with wounded Russian troops.
Earlier, protecting children from Western influence was repeatedly mentioned by Russian politicians as a justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In September 2022, Vladimir Putin devoted part of his speech to accusations against Western countries where children are allegedly “imposed with perversions.”
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg deputy Boris Vishnevsky reminded, “according to Rosstat data, a quarter of Russians do not have centralized sewage systems, using cesspools and septic tanks.”
In April 2022, after the discovery of widespread looting by Russian troops in the territories they occupied, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formulated the Russian dream as “steal a toilet and die.”
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