Most Russians want gays liquidated or ostracized. That’s according to a recent poll that showed hardening attitudes towards all minorities in Russia, but especially towards the country’s LGBT community. Behind Russia’s blossoming hatred for gays are several powerful myths that make up the Kremlin’s narrative of homosexuality as a Western conspiracy aimed at destroying Russian traditions. Over the last four years these myths have emerged as major propaganda themes for media in Russia and beyond. Coda set out to identify four of the most powerful myths and to understand how they were spun into fuel for homophobia.

Myth 1: Pedophile parties are now in power in Europe.

In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, homosexuality is often equated with pedophilia. Concepts of “tolerance” or “political correctness” carry deeply negative connotations. In September 2013 during his annual speech at the Valdai Club, a televised gathering of a select group of Russia experts, Putin talked about “the excesses of political correctness” which, he said “reach the point where there are serious discussions on the registration of parties that have propaganda of pedophilia as their objective.” The Russian president was apparently referring to a legal case around a Dutch foundation called Martijn, which was established in 1982 to promote the legalization of consensual sex between adults and children. The group had three official members, who tried and failed to register as a political party, and the group was eventually banned by the Netherlands Supreme Court. But none of that was reported in Russia. A week after the Valdai Club speech, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the information about a pedophile party in Europe “had been verified in the most thorough method, including by our Foreign Ministry,” and the headline “Pedophile parties are active in Europe” became part of the Russian media narrative.

It also spread beyond Russia’s borders, and not only through the media. In a 2015 interview with the BBC, an Orthodox priest in Georgia, Father Iotame, said the West posed a danger because of the “pedophile parties taking over Europe.” He said that he first heard of the European pedophile parties during what he described as a religious “boot camp” organized by fellow Orthodox priests visiting from Russia. The workshops, he said, focused on resistance to the “wave of filth” of homosexuality and pedophilia coming from the West.

Myth 2: Сhildren in Europe are encouraged to masturbate from age four.

In 2014, Russia’s main Channel 1 reported that in some sex-ed programs schoolchildren in Berlin are encouraged to play pantomime depicting orgasms, pornography and sadomasochism.