Published: April 21, 2014
Masha Gessen

As part of Russian Culture Week, Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen will give two public talks Thursday at the University of Colorado.

Gessen will discuss Russia's anti-gay movement in a talk titled "Russia, the New Anti-Gay Capital of the World," and the punk band Pussy Riot in a talk titled "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot" on Thursday.

The journalist was born in the Soviet Union and, as a teenager, immigrated to the United States with her parents. She returned to Russia in the 1990s, but after anti-gay legislation adopted by Russia in 2013, she moved back to America.