On Nov. 24, the Russian parliament passed a law on so-called LGBT propaganda. New amendments banned anything that could be construed as a suggestion that homosexual relationships are normal.

This was happening right at the time Russian troops were fleeing from Kherson and the futile Russian attacks on Bakhmut were leaving several hundred dead on the battlefield each day.

Whу in God’s name are Russian lawmakers so agitated about gay marriages during a bloody war? Do they have nothing else to discuss? How is “gay propaganda” related to war with Ukraine?

Turns out, directly.

To understand the relationship, we must turn to a speech given on Dec. 1 at a forum in Sochi by one of the most mysterious and influential figures of the Russian court: Mikhail Kovalchuk, currently head of the famous Kurchatov’s institute and brother to Vladimir Putin’s closest friend, Yuri Kovalchuk, who reportedly spent the long months of total COVID-19 isolation with Putin.

So, what did this influential Russian “scientist” say?

Some pretty astonishing things.

He said that the Western elite […]