Seriously, out of all the problems out there in the world, it seems a little wild for the furry fandom to be such a top priority for the Russian government. Still, reports from The Moscow Times show that the country is heavily considering marking several groups as extremists including furries.
Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the Roskomnadzor communications regulator, said Wednesday that, “LGBT ideology, radical feminism, and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism — an extremist ideology” before going into further details.
“LGBT+ ideology, radical feminism, all these furries, child-free – they, of course, should be recognised at least as extremism, extremist ideology.”
These changes would “expand the rights of law enforcement” and make furries in the same category as neo-Nazis legally within the country.
What makes this choice even more curious is the current theory as to why it may be happening. Many are theorizing that furries sexualizing the 2018 FIFA World Cup mascot Zabivaka might have permanently put the fandom on the government’s radar.
Some of these pieces of artwork were done specifically in protest of Russia’s anti-LGQBTQ+ laws and many were quite explicit. This was also documented in a YouTube video with over 4 million views that directed viewers towards the Russian LGBT Network to offer them support. Currently, there are over 380 pictures of Zabivaka on the anthropomorphic art website e621.
While it is not official policy yet, the idea that the furry fandom could be this politically unsafe in Russia is a wild thought indeed.
