Gay and trans Russians ‘trying to join ISIS’ despite group executing gay people
A gay man and a trans woman are reportedly trying to flee Russia… to head to Syria and join Islamic State.
Russian media is reporting that the pair, known as Viktoria E and Aleksey T, are believed to be heading from their home in the Kamchatka region to Syria to join up with the radical Islamic group after experiencing oppression in Russia.
However, they are unlikely to find much respite, as Islamic State routinely executes LGBT people by throwing them off of rooftops in gruesome propaganda videos.
According to the Moscow Times, the 22-year-olds are believed to be trying to enter Syria through the North Caucasus – which is home to a large Muslim population. Russia has recently seen a spate of radicalised youth fleeing to fight with ISIS, as have Western countries.
The pair have reportedly been dubbed the “battle trannies” by the Russian media.
Police source Alexander Vinogradov told the Daily Mail: “We would always be interested in stopping people from joining a terrorist organisation but in this case there is a double motive, as our information is that this would not be accepted if they managed to get all the way to Syria, and it is unlikely that they would live very long once their sexual orientation was revealed.”
The pair have been placed on a list of those wanted for terrorist activity by the Russian police.
Islamic State previously threatened to come to Rome and throw gay people off the “Leaning Tower of Pizza”.
The group were seemingly unaware both that they had misspelled “Leaning Tower of Pisa”, and that the tower is actually located in the town of Pisa, nearly 200 miles from Rome.
