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34 I Central Europe
party, which is the coalition partner of
the ruling conservative GERB party”. The report quoted Defence Minister Krasimir Karakachanov from the far right IMRO party as saying about anti-government protesters in September: “We cannot let a few Sorosoid NGOs and small parties, that are not even in the parliament, get in power and destroy the country. In the name of what? To introduce gay marriage and to create a gender republic.”
In Croatia an effigy of a gay couple and a child was burnt at a festival in Imotski shortly after a ruling by the Supreme Court on the right of same-sex couples to foster children.
Hate speech from politicians
“The review shows a substantial rise in hate speech across the regions, both from official sources, in the media and online. The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBTI people has grown considerably and spread widely, while many religious leaders have directly blamed LGBTI people for COVID-19,” said Paradis.
According to the report, “The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBTI people has grown sizeably and spread
in countries including Albania, Azerbai- jan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Moldova, North Macedo- nia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Turkey.”
Among the many examples of hate speech by politicians, in October 2020, Estonia’s then interior minister Mart Helme made disrespectful comments about same-sex
couples in an interview with Deutsche Welle. Helme, the outspoken leader of the far right Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), opined that Estonian gay people "could run to Sweden" as they are looked upon more favourably there.
On EKRE’s urging, the government led by Juri Ratas planned to hold a referendum in April 2021 to ask Estonian citizens: “Should marriage in Estonia remain
as a union between one man and one woman?” However, the government collapsed at the beginning of 2021.
In Latvia, far-right MP Janis Iesalnieks retweeted a post of an “LGBT-Free zone” sign in Latvian, similar to those used
in Poland.
Moldova’s incumbent president Igor Dodon used anti-LGBT rhetoric in an attempt to discredit his rival Maia Sandu ahead of the presidential election.
“I have not participated in any gay marches, like Maia Sandu has done in recent years. Think very carefully, dear parents, what we will achieve in schools with such a president,” Dodon, who went on to lose the election, told a press conference.
Civil partnerships in the Western Balkans
In the EU-aspiring Western Balkans, Montenegro became the first country to introduce civil partnerships, and the Serbian government has promised to take steps toward introducing civil partnerships in 2021.
bne March 2021
Meanwhile, talks on a potential marriage equality law stalled in Czechia, and in Latvia the parliament rejected a proposal for same-sex marriage to be legalised. “[Latvia’s] first initiative to legalise civil partnerships or same-sex marriage was launched in 1997, but all have failed to date,” the report noted.
Many countries have “more progressive laws on the books than there were
five years ago, but in too many places we’re still waiting for those laws to translate into real change in the lived experience of LGBTI people”, according to LIGA-Europe. At the same time,
“in a substantial number of countries, legislative change is lagging, stagnant or backsliding”.
Pride cancelled
In recent years there have been
a growing number of Pride events
in emerging Europe. In 2020, there were very few Pride events, as most were cancelled due to the lockdowns – indeed, many LGBTI organisations had to turn their energies to providing basic necessities like food and shelter when governments left LGBTI people out of their relief packages.
“The absence of Pride events matters not just as a test of free assembly, but because of the potential longer-term impact on the visibility and presence of LGBTI people and communities in the public space, which will only be seen as we move into the years beyond the pandemic,” said the report.
bne:Tech
Contents
Top stories
Russia’s top retail and tech companies join forces to hunt for innovations in the rest of the world 2 Ukraine-born startups raised more
than half a billion dollars in 2019 4 Russian video streaming platforms
gain speed 5 Cloud services take off in Russia 6 SEMrush to SEO success 8
Leaders 9
Russia’s internet giant Yandex
announces growing and more
diversified revenues in 2019 10 Russian telecom major Rostelecom misses on earnings in 4Q19, cash
flow solid 12
Investment 13
World Bank approves $35mn project
to modernise Kyrgyz tax administration and statistical system 13 Romanian online home decoration
retailer raises €3.5mn in bonds 14 Russian billionaires Abramovich, Gutseriev, said to invest in Telegram
crypto project TON 14 Russian fund Da Vinci Capital gets
€30mn from Germany’s DEG to invest
in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan 15
Fintech & E-commerce 16
Russian e-commerce major
Wildberries to add self-employed
vendor products to offering 16 Russian Dixy retailer to launch online sales with Ozon 17 Valuation of Sistema’s e-commerce
asset Ozon boosted to $1.8bn 17
Telecom 19
Makedonski Telekom’s net profit
up 6% y/y in 2019 19 Romanian telco Digi grows by double
digit rates in 2019 19 Russia could postpone 5G rollout
from 2022 to 2024 20
NIBs 21
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March 2020
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Russia’s top retail and tech companies
join forces to hunt for innovations in
the rest of the world
BAs Russia’s retail and tech sectors consolidate, the leading companies are turned their gaze outwards to hunt for
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new technology and innovation.
See page 2
Ukraine-born startups raised more
than half a billion dollars in 2019
In 2019, the venture capital and private equity funding volume for Ukrainian and Ukrainian-founded tech startups reached $544mn (up from $323mn in 2018 and $265mn in 2017), says AVentures Capital’s latest industry report ”DealBook of Ukraine”,
reports Adrien Henni of Ukraine Digital News. See page 4
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