“It’s kind of random,” said Anton Floretskii, a gay Russian émigré at Buenos Aires’ Pride celebration last week.

The 29-year-old wore a tank top reading “My boyfriend is gay,” and while taking in the remarkable sight for a young and gay Russian like him — tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ revelers, celebrating without fear.

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LGBTQ+ people march against Javier Milei & for Pride in Buenos Aires this weekend

“Argentina was never on the map,” he told The New York Times.

Floretskii is among a growing group of gay Russian émigrés fleeing Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime, threatened with arrest for living authentically, or conscription to the war in Ukraine — and in some nightmarish cases, both.

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Crossing the border may provide a temporary escape for some Russians, but neighboring countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Armenia don’t afford legal protections for LGBTQ+ people. Comparitively, emigration to Western countries comes with a high price in terms of time and increasing restrictions.

At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine war in 2022, Floretskii came across a shared Google Doc, circulated by other gay Russians, listing potential destinations for those choosing to flee.

Argentina checked a lot of boxes.

For one, the Argentine Constitution, adopted in 1853, states that it welcomes “all men in the world who want to live on Argentine soil.” The country offers strong protections for LGBTQ+ rights, and was the first in Latin America to adopt marriage equality and gender self-determination.

“They have immigrant rights in the Constitution,” said Giordani Taldyki, 27, another new arrival to Argentina. “I was like, ‘OK, I really like it.’”

Argentina also has a long history as a destination for immigrants, from Eastern European Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries to Russian political dissidents abandoning the collapsing Soviet Union in the 1990s. (Not to mention Nazis fleeing prosecution following World War II.)

A wave of gay Russians arriving in Argentina accompanies the over 120,000 immigrants fleeing Putin’s regime.

“Russians were coming, like, coming and coming and coming,” said Siberian Anna Sokolova, 43, who runs a dog training business in Buenos Aires with her wife. “It was like a snowball.”

Mariano Ruiz, director of an LGBTQ+ asylum group, said his organization has helped over 1,800 gay and trans Russians enter the country since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I can be a trans girl, I can be myself, and I don’t feel judged,” said Alisa Nikolaev, 24, who grew up in Siberia and moved to Argentina last year.

“It’s the most freedom I have ever seen,” said Marat Murzakhanov, 23, another Russian reveler at Buenos Aires Pride. “We want to stay here.” 

While the comparisons between Russia and Argentina are night and day for Murzakhanov and his compatriots, LGBTQ+ Argentines do face an obstacle in the country’s unpredictable right-wing leader, Javier Milei, who has pandered to the country’s conservative majority in his own Make Argentina Great Again crusade.

After originally courting the LGBTQ+ community with a libertarian message, Milei took a hard right turn following Donald Trump’s return to the White House, shocking Argentinians with a hateful message at the Davos Economic Forum in January.

“Gender ideology constitutes plain and simple child abuse. They are pedophiles,” he said of queer people and their allies.

Last week’s Pride march in Buenos Aires was a celebration as well as a denunciation of Milei and his policies.

It was also a demonstration of public protest not seen in the new Russian émigrés’ home country.

“When I told my parents I am moving to Argentina, they were like, ‘Where is that?’” said Floretskii, the young man in the “My boyfriend is gay” tank top. “I explained, ‘It’s in the Southern Hemisphere, that they have completely different stars.”

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