Why is this a surprise? They have their lobbies in all powerful organizations around the world. It’s good to expose them and remove them from power.
The existence of gay lobby in every organization is of course not a surprise. It was not a surprise to Kuraev, who after all went through the same seminaries about which he now reports.
Newsworthy part is the extreme popularity of the Deacon and his ability to launch a media campaign. Also, unlike the dynamics of the gay clergy scandal in America, driven by the enemies of the Church almost exclusively, Kuraev is apparently driven by his love for the Orthodox Church.
He now admits that he miscalculated on the timing. There was an inspection sent from the Moscow Patriarchy to investigate abuse in Kazan Seminary. Compromising material was discovered by the inspectors and got leaked to Kuraev. Kuraev assumed it was a signal from the Patriarchy to begin a cleansing process, so he censored faces and names and published some of it. It turns out, the inspection was a part of the gay lobby operation itself, designed to get rid of one cleric in favor of even gayer another. So instead of whacking a ball cleverly served by Patriarch Kirill, Kuraev only got himself in trouble, and now, courageously, dug in his heels.