As Russia mulls tighter laws, tennis star Daria Kasatkina comes out as gay

Russian tennis player Daria Kasatkina has revealed she is dating a woman even as her country's parliament is discussing how to further clamp down on discussions of LGBTQ relationships.

Kasatkina, 25, who is currently Russia's number one singles player, opened up in an interview with blogger Vitya Kravchenko. The interview was released on YouTube on Monday.

Later on Instagram, Kasatkina posted a picture on Instagram of her hugging a woman, whom news agency AP identified as Russian-Estonian figure skater Natalia Zabiiako. The post also had a heart emoji.


Zabiiako, 27, who now represents Canada was a three-time Russian national medalist and had won medals for Russia in international competitions.

In her interview on YouTube, Kasatkina said living in the closet would not work in the long term.

"I believe it is important that influential people from sports, or any other sphere, really speak about it," she said in the interview.

Russian parliament is discussing on whether to extend a ban on the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relationships". Currently the law covers only minors, and the lawmakers want it to cover adults too. Already gay pride marches are banned in the country and gay activists arrested under a 2013 gay propaganda law.