LGBT people are really convenient: we're sort of the ultimate foreign agent in Russia. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the values that affirm nontraditional relationships, that affirm feminism, come from abroad. If you've established - and this isn't… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Were there open gays and lesbians before the West started influencing Russia? No, there weren't. In fact, the most out person in the country, until recently, was me. I turned gay in America. I was a nice Soviet fourteen-year-old when… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
There's this American pretense, which is the pretense of the journalist with the view from nowhere - which has somehow morphed into the journalist… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
Pussy Riot have certainly changed some people's assumptions about the role of political art and the relationship between the intelligentsia and the church. That's… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
Trump, like Putin, has a demonstrably thin skin and short temper when it comes to being criticized by journalists. — Masha Gessen Copy Share
You risk everything if you so much as join a legal protest demonstration in Russia. It raises the stakes. — Masha Gessen Copy Share
Donald Trump creates word salads. And that is awful to language, because we try to parse out what he's saying and try to find… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
It is the first time since 1993 that Russians have come out into the streets without an explicit permission from the government to do… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
I think Donald Trump was brought to power by Americans. They voted for him. — Masha Gessen Copy Share
In the 1990s, there was a lot of reform, and there was a lot of forward movement on a lot of fronts in Russia.… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
Poverty and scarcity are actually very good for totalitarian societies. They maintain that sense of mobilization that's essential for totalitarian societies. — Masha Gessen Copy Share
I think that Putin's strategy has been throwing a lot of money, fairly haphazardly, at a lot of projects aimed at disrupting Western relations… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
Both Trump and Putin use language primarily to communicate not facts or opinions but power: it's not what the words mean that matters but… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
I worked both as a Russian journalist and an American journalist and ran a bunch of magazines in Moscow over the course of about… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
I have no doubt that there are Russian efforts to disturb the fabric of American democracy, but they're disruption efforts. They're troublemaking efforts. They're… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
For years I was the only publicly out gay person who was not a full-time gay activist: my position as a quasi-foreigner gave me… — Masha Gessen Copy Share
