Nikolai Nedzelsky has always wanted to be a father.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): When I first took Gavrushka into my arms at the hospital, I realised the rest of the world did not exist, nothing else was important.
But his best friend, Irina's baby, is the closest he can come to parenthood. As a gay couple, it's illegal for Nikolai and his partner to adopt a child and now according to a new law, Nikolai could be charged with exposing a child to so-called propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations. Irina too is implicated.
IRINA (Translation): If I allow my child to associate with homosexuals, then according to our Russian laws, I am engaging in gay propaganda.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): In their opinion you abuse the child and you can be deprived of parental rights.
Russia's new law means that all public demonstrations by sexual minorities are now illegal. Dozens were arrested at this gay pride celebration in St Petersburg. and this protest turned violent as police cracked down. There's growing unease amongst Russia's gay community as the country witnesses a surge in homophobic violence.
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV, PARLIAMENTARIAN (Translation): The law states that if you hold a mass public event or start promoting it among the minors, that is, children, you are going to be fined - that is all. So there are no issues there.
And that's what this group of gay hunters are trying to do.
MAN (Translation): Sit fucking down.
MAN 2 (Translation): Why touch me?
MAN (Translation): Don't twitch.
MAN 2 (Translation): I don't want to sit.
They call themselves Occupy Pedophilay. Using social networking sites, they lure men to meetings with minors. This video shows their leader abusing and humiliating a target. Posted online, the videos are watched by millions. Ostensibly, Occupy Pedophilay targets paedophiles. But in Russia, the distinction between homosexuality and paedophilia is often blurred. Even President Putin spoke of the two in the same breath, in a discussion on Russian television after a trip to Holland earlier this year.
PRESIDENT VALDIMIR PUTIN (Translation): During my last trip, we spent a lot of time discussing the rights of sexual minorities. If, in the Netherlands, the court gives legal standing to an organisation that promotes paedophilia, why on earth must we adopt such standards?
ANZHEY KHMITITS, OCCUPY PEDOPHILAY (Translation): We judge gays and paedophiles identically - we see no difference. I don't see those creatures as human. Not at all. They look anthropomorphic, but they are not human. They are revolting. People shake our hands in the street and come to us to say "Good on you."
Anzhey Khmitits is a proud member of Occupy Pedophilay. The gang's founder, known as Tesak, which means machete, is a neo-Nazi who featured on Dateline 10 years ago. The then 19-year-old said he was on a mission to rid Russia of non-whites.
TESAK (Translation): We must stand up proudly and say, "We are Aryans." And kill all niggers, Chinese, Jews and Wogs from the Caucasus.
GANG (Translation): Glory to Russia!
He spent three years in prison after being found guilty of inciting racially motivated violence. Today, Tesak is a regular, if highly controversial guest, on Russian TV talk shows.
TESAK (Translation): You're a triple fag.
MAN (Translation): Let's go out.
HOST (Translation): Please, sort it out outside.
TESAK (Translation): One, two, three.
And it's clear that he's very much part of the anti-gay militia. His offsider, Khmitits, is confident that support for Occupy Pedophilay goes right to the top.
ANZHEY KHMITITS (Translation): When Vladimir Putin had his....his round table, that live video conference, and was asked about our organisation, he said he supported this kind of activism.
Nikolai Nedzelsky agrees. He believes the government is deliberately provoking homophobia to create a distraction from the country's social and economic issues.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): Because what has been reigning in Russia is total discord. People need to be united - nothing unites people so powerfully as sharing hatred for someone they do not like. And historically, people do not like gays.
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV: Nobody can say that gays in Russia are second-rate citizens. I have friends, they are gays and it is not a problem.
NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV, LAWYER: It's ridiculous to say that everything is fine in the society. And everything is terrific. There is no problem and so on.
Lawyer Nikolai Alexeyev has been fighting for the rights of Russia's sexual minorities since 2006.
NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV: Now the prides and public events have been banned on the basis of this new law protecting minors.
He's been arrested multiple times for holding demonstrations at gay pride events.
NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV (Translation): Explain, what law have I broken?
POLICE (Translation): We will explain now.
NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV (Translation): An outrage by Moscow authorities!
Most recently, he was detained outside the Moscow City Hall, charged with participating in an unsanctioned demonstration.
NIKOLAI ALEXEYEV: This is what this law was made for. It has nothing to do with minors. If Russian authorities really wanted to protect minors they would pass different laws which will support the children. But everyone is so obsessed with the gay propaganda which doesn't exist.
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV (Translation): It would be better if all these activists started working - working instead of walking around with banners. That would be better, much better both for society and for them. They would improve themselves through labour.
In Soviet Russia, sexual minorities had no choice but to remain invisible.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): It is very easy to govern a country where everyone is identical and all who do not conform to the norm have to hide.
It wasn't until 1993 that homosexuality was decriminalised. Gay clubs opened and people began to find the courage to come out. But by the end of the '90s, Russia was in a state of economic and social turmoil.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): In the 90s people often said "We need a firm hand and a controlling government." They have a historical love for the Tsar, the Good Father. Here, historically, authoritarianism is the norm.
And if Vladimir Putin, the ultra conservative Orthodox Church has become increasingly influential in Russian society, using religion to demonise homosexuality.
GARY (Translation): I know someone who killed himself because of this.
ANJA (Translation): Me too....someone.
GARY (Translation): I knew someone. Past tense.
Gay teenagers, Gary and Anja, say they are reminded every day how difficult it is to be gay in Russia these days.
ANJA (Translation): And society forces you to believe "You are sick, you are wrong, you are a creep..."
When we step outside, I see exactly what they mean.
WOMAN (Translation): I really want to add something.
REPORTER: Yes please.
When a woman approaches us with this message of anti-gay hate.
WOMAN (Translation): These people suffer from, how is it called... from acne because their bodies are polluted, they are polluted.
GARY (Translation): I don't think these things are linked.
WOMAN (Translation): Yes, they are. It's an abnormality.
GARY (Translation): So we are ill, are we?
ANJA (Translation): Yes, Shall we go?
GARY (Translation): Let's go to the clinic and get cured. Let's pray to God.
WOMAN (Translation): You won't be cured.
The new anti-gay propaganda law is feeding Russia's deep-seated homophobia and it's having a deadly effect. HIV and AIDS is at epidemic proportions in Russia.
EVGENY SOROKOUMOV (Translation): There are drugs for the destitute, those who can't afford it.
Over one million Russians have HIV, with 200 new cases being registered every day. A significant percentage of Russia's gay community is affected. But less than 10% of those infected receive the necessary antiretroviral drugs. There's no government funding for prevention programs and it's prohibited for giving information to teenagers.
EVGENY SOROKOUMOV (Translation): We are forbidden to advertise condoms. We can't say condoms offer protection against AIDS. We can just hand them out here on the sly. We can't go into the streets and hand them out. The law forbids that. Condoms are seen as promoting debauchery and an immoral way of life, and as contributing to the spread of HIV, AIDS and various diseases.
Evgeny Sorokoumov manages this privately funded HIV and AIDS counselling centre.
REPORTER (Translation): What measures is the government taking to fight this problem?
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV (Translation): What measures?
REPORTER (Translation): Yes.
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV (Translation): To cut down the high-risk groups, to fight against drug abuse... to raise the level of culture in our society, to promote family values, and religious faith, to increase the ranks of Orthodox believers.
In February, the world's elite winter sport athletes will descend on Sochi. Some in the international community are calling for a boycott of the Games. But ultimately Russia has little intention of bowing to Western concerns.
VLADIMIR PUTIN (Translation): We mind our own business. We have a different society. Why do they demand that we implement their standards?
MIKHAIL DEGTYAROV (Translation): Russia is a country where the traditional family will survive and go on. Russia will become an example and the last stronghold where traditional family values will still be cultivated and developed. We won't allow the family as an institution to be destroyed. I guarantee that.
Nikolai Nedzelsky fears with such attitudes, levels of homophobia can only increase.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): The authorities have officially sanctioned the persecution of gay people by issuing this law.
Nedzelsky and his non-traditional family believe they now have little option but to leave Russia.
NIKOLAI NEDZELSKY (Translation): We cannot stay here, it is getting too dangerous, we need to leave and never come back and given that Irina, Roman and Gavriusha also want to leave, I think we will be in a wonderful situation.
Reporter/Camera
KIM TRAILL
Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Editor
WAYNE LOVE
Translations/Subtitling
ELENA MIKHAILIK
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN
‘Mr Propaganda' Footage courtesy of Vladmir Ivanov