For Washingtonian, a profile of two married activists and their dramatic, wrenching escape from Putin’s Russia:

On Instagram, Anya saw gay couples leave the country. Lera would always tell Anya she wanted to stay and fight. “I believed in activism,” Lera says. “That we could change things.” Increasingly, Anya had doubts. “When you are flying and the plane is going down,” she says, “you know it will hit the ground.”