Exactly.
The topic starter is very out of touch with the reality of actually living in those countries. As someone who lived for a while in the Middle East and Russia, I know that openly promoting LGBT rights in those countries would bring hate and threats to the company's employees at the very least. It's actually against the law to promote LGBT rights in Russia because that would supposedly hurt children. It's horrible, but it is what it is, and Bethesda as a business has to abide by those countries' cultural laws.
I am currently working with some Americans who are setting up a new business in my city. I was working with them on a few communication key points and they asked me if they are allowed to use the pride flag in their office & on their socials. I had to tell them how it took almost 30+ years for trans people TO BARELY get recognized right now. A rainbow profile picture or any endorsement of the LGBT will only go well with 0.00000001% of the entire population of the country, with the remainder boycotting and protesting you.
As of right now, Trans People are the Facebook equivalent of the SEEN meme. The government has given them an identity and acknowledges their existence, but the police will never take a case of harassment, street crime, or any hostile crime committed toward a trans person as a serious case. The only difference between a trans person and an LGBT person in Pakistan is that the trans person is allowed to marry.
In Pakistan, if you belong to any letter in the LGBT and growing alphabet, and are open about it, you're a LITERAL target of the religious party, and if you go to a public university, you are literally painting a giant target on your back. These government funded universities are full of hooligans and thugs who carry guns in their cars like I carry my car papers. The law and officials are too scared to stop them because of their religious and political connections.
There is a university in my city where riots, protests and shootings happen on campus as a regular occurrence. And these are over trivial matters like beef between two sects or castes. Now imagine they find a LGBT person being open of their identity, they will literally hunt and murder that person and be rewarded for it with the media spending 2 minutes condoning the news and the remaining 58 minutes calling the rise of LGBT in Pakistan a blight.
In Pakistan and the Middle East countries, LGBT are STILL criminalized and considered pedophiles, abominations of Allah. I can't speak for Russia and I can speak for Turkey and Middle East when I say that them boosting the Rainbow flag will create an unnecessary PR nightmare, even if their intentions are good. You'll have a flood of social media comments, the media and other officials calling for a boycott or investigation into the brand and why do they support LGBT etc.
TL;DR If you KNOW that jumping in the tigers cage means a 99% chance that a tiger will rip you to shreds and eat you, would you still go in the cage with just a 1% chance of survival? That's the literal stance of Middle East countries and pride month.
I do wish things were better but unfortunately, cultural and religious laws overrule the rights of the LGBT in these parts of the world and this is something you have to accept. You can't and will never have blanket acceptance, especially in parts of the world where you KNOW it will do nothing but create a world of trouble for yourself and your brand.
