They are clowns.
There's so much pathos and feigned tragedy in their message – they're deeply worried that they won't be able to receive grants and milk sponsors anymore under the pretext of "evil Russia"...
The figures for the number of "saved" Russians are especially amusing... Actually, leaving the country is free – you can go wherever you want, to France, to Argentina, to the USA, you know?
The problem for Russian gay people who want to leave Russia is not that they are prevented from leaving the country, but that they are not allowed into the countries they want to go to, and these clowns from RR can't help with that.
So, if you worry about "poor Russian gays" you should call to your senator and to ask lift visa restrictions.
No. Anyone may use VPN. I do as well for to see websites which block connection from Russia (once again: blocking is going by foreign websites, not by Russian telecom). Also VPN is good against filtering: for example if you are from EU, then Twitter will block porn for you unless you will deanonymize yourself.
While "from US":
So under one of my VPN I pretend to be from US, by another one - '"from NL", third one shows me from Singapore. Under last two I'm from Turkey or Mumbai - under these VPNs I have best prices for airlines, hotels and videogames.