Russians warned against not voting in homophobic video ahead of presidential election

A video widely distributed across social media in Russia is urging people to vote in the upcoming elections by showing an alternate reality where single gay people are assigned to families.

The video, which was shared on various social media platforms by a range of users, is set on the eve of the election and begins with a couple getting ready for bed.

The wife tells her husband, played by prominent Russian actor Sergei Burunov, she has set an alarm to get up to vote the next morning. He mockingly tells her her vote is not important, that they will choose someone without her and that she should turn off the alarm so they can have a lie in. They drift off to sleep.

He is awoken by a loud knock on the door and shouts of “comrade, open the door”. He opens it to find a military general alongside two soldiers, one of whom is black. They say they have come to enrol him in the army.

In disbelief, the lead actor tells them he is 52, to which the general replies: “Excellent, the conscription age has been raised to 60”. He adds that the President he voted for had changed the law.

The video continues with the husband entering his kitchen, where he discovers an actor portraying an effeminate gay man dressed in a pink T-shirt with tattoos, sitting at the table filing his nails.

He reacts with anger and shock as his wife explains that as part of the law, every family has to let a gay person who has been dumped stay with them until they find a new partner. She adds, that if he does not find someone new soon, “you will have to be with him instead”.

The actor depicting the gay man, who is eating a banana, adds: “The law is the law”.

Descending into a supposedly nightmarish scenario complete with red flashes and alarming music, the husband runs into the bathroom where is quickly informed that toilet time is limited.

He awakes – or thinks he does – to find the gay man in bed with him in his wife’s place.

He then wakes up a second time, this time supposedly for real, shakes his wife awake and they both rush out to vote “before it is too late”.

Some have taken to Twitter to share their disbelief at the video.

Twitter use @JenLWoodside said: “This tactic to get Russians out to vote is surreal, as well as #homophobic and #racist.”

It is unclear who created the video, which has been shared numerous times from various accounts across different social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram and Facebook over the last few days.

Russia’s election committee denied the video had anything to do with them, according to The Guardian.

The first round of the Russian presidential elections will take place on 18 March. If no one gets an absolute majority of the votes, a second round takes place three weeks later.

According to opinion polls, Vladimir Putin is expected to win. If he does, it will be his second consecutive term in office and his fourth term in total.

Seven other candidates are challenging him, including Sergey Baburin and liberal journalist Ksenia Sobchak, the latter of whom has also reportedly criticised the short film.

Alexei Navalny, leader of the Progress Party was not registered for elections, and has been urging supporters not to vote.