LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) – A transgender politician from Russia said on Thursday that he had reverted to his gender assigned at birth, in an unusual message amid a crackdown on LGBTQ rights in the country. Roman Alyoshin, who previously went by the name Yulia Alyoshina and last year ran for governor of a Siberian region, said he had come to the decision during Orthodox Lent after a period of “spiritual anguish”. “I went through old albums of my ancestors, prayed for them, and it helped the idea set in that I’m a guy”, Alyoshin wrote on the Telegram messenger app. “I’m a patriot of my country, that’s why I live in Russia. I apologise to all the Russian people!” Alyoshin, thought to be the first openly transgender political figure in Russia, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on his decision to detransition.