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This one just baffles me.
FBI sting on an army officer nets an spying bust. Dog bites man, except there's a lot more not mentioned in the press release. It's culture war because the accused is the first openly trans officer in the Army. However the baffling thing is, why is an openly trans officer willing to spy for Russia which is widely known for its anti-LGBT policies.
The other odd thing about this case is the DoJ's release uses a lot of pronouns that don't don't seem to be Henry's preferred pronouns.
The fed govt. it seems can look for any excuse to indict someone. Sharing health info somehow threatens national security.
Usually the counts are wrapped as one, so the worst case would likely be 10 years.
Because in spite of such polices, Russia is known for having progressive cultural elements too it (literature, chess, ballet, figure skating ,etc.) Sans Putin, it's not that conservative of a country.
I would not describe those as "progressive cultural elements". They are traditional high culture, not something the left would probably be enthusiastic about. (The modern, Western left, that is. The Soviets believed in the value of high culture and wanted to make it available to the masses.)
Putin is widely popular in Russia, or at least was before the current kerfuffle. Conservative, traditionalist views on society and culture are widespread. There may be a certain feminist streak, a holdover from the Soviet era, but LGBT stuff is a big no-no. (That is my understanding, at least. I'm not Russian, but as far as I know, neither are you.)
Russian society doesn’t seem notably traditionalist, although it’s clearly pretty opposed to blue tribe values.
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