By Nathan Hodge and Darya Tarasova, CNN

(CNN)A gay Russian man is in hiding after Russian authorities opened a criminal case over a YouTube video in which he was interviewed by children, a case that has drawn attention from human-rights activists.

Maxim Pankratov told CNN he was facing threats and a potentially lengthy prison sentence for appearing in the video discussing his life as an openly gay man in Russia.

"It was a normal conversation about my life and they want to put me in jail," he said. The video, originally posted on the Russian-language "Real Talk" YouTube channel, featured four children interviewing Pankratov, 22, about his life and his identity as a gay man.

The format of the video is simple: Pankratov and his interviewers face each other in chairs against a blue background, and the children ask simple questions: "How did you know you were gay?" and "Are there guys who like other guys?"

"I thought it was a normal conversation with children, there was no discussion of sex," Pankratov said. "It was about what it's like to be a gay man in Russia and how I live. We wanted to show society that you can be tolerant."

But earlier this month, the Investigative Committee, Russia's top law-enforcement body, opened a criminal case alleging that the video amounted to "violent acts of a sexual nature," Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. Read more via CNN