The crappy law --> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dima_Yakovlev_Law
It was a huge deal back in the day... My parents subscribe to russian tv and I still watch certain shows from time to time. The russian version of QI is not so bad :) The problem is not in the upbringing but the whole mentality propagated by the media. It's a mentality of intolerance and unfortunately most people will not question it any further. I'm not saying Russians are not nice people because I know how friendship is valued and friends will really go above and beyond to help you. But the culture of intolerance is present amongst a huge majority (In my experience like, 80-90% of people) and no matter how good a person you are, I just can't stand to hang around people that think being gay is a disease. These people are not assholes, but they are still wrong :(