There is a vicious circle of escalating antagonism between the new homonationalism of LGBTQI communities and what can by analogy be called “heteronationalism”: the adoption of anti-LGBTQI attitudes as an expression of insurgent national, ethnic and/or religious identity.
The government also uses such state homophobia to divert public attention from domestic problems. Blaming the West for the struggling economy is currently one of the main strategies the government employs. In this situation, Russian homosexuals are presented as Western agents that are paid to destroy family values and national identity. The current Russian policy is to build the nation based on conservative heteronationalism characterized by stable gender norms, traditional family values, the aggressive rejection of non-normative sexuality, and opposition to the West.
Heteronationalism draws from homophobia to enforce the nations one masculine image by excluding homosexuals or effeminate masculinities from the nation—to demark both internal and external boundaries—and to claim the dominant position in the masculine hierarchy of nations.
