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The court fined two young people 100,000 roubles each (about US$1,100) for sharing a kiss at the “Hippyatnik” festival in the Tsaritsyno park. This was reported by Novaya Vkladka.
Twenty-year-olds Andrei and Mark (names changed) were found guilty under the article on “LGBT propaganda” (article 6.21 of the Administrative Offences Code).
The festival took place on 1 September 2025. The young people kissed during a game of spin the bottle. They were filmed by a young man they didn’t know.
“I heard someone say they were about to post us on Pozdnyakov’s channel, and out of the corner of my eye I saw we were being filmed, but I didn’t think much of it,” Mark said.
That same day, the video started circulating in right-wing Telegram channels, where users left hateful comments directed at the young people. The video was also published by blogger-informant Vladislav Pozdnyakov. The pro-government movement “Call of the People” reported that they had submitted a tip-off about the young people to the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee.
Andrei was detained on 5 September. He said police, when he refused to confess guilt, strangled him and hit him in the face with a copy of the Administrative Offences Code, and one officer threatened to “sit him on a bottle.”
Andrei’s mother told the authorities his whereabouts, taking the side of the police at that time. Mark’s mother refused to disclose where her son was, so the authorities came to her workplace. In the end, Mark went to the police station with his father and lawyer, and did not encounter violence.
A few days later, the court fined the young people.
Their lawyer said that in the judge’s chambers, the judge rebuked her for defending the young men: “She started asking if I would defend paedophiles the same way. I said: ‘What does that have to do with this? ’”
According to the defence, the fines are absurd: “If my clients had stripped off and run naked through the park, their punishment would have been a 1,000-rouble (about US$11) fine for hooliganism. But if it’s a kiss between people of the same gender, it’s a 100,000-rouble fine.”
The young people appealed the fines. Due to incorrect jurisdiction, another court re-examined their case in December. By then, the statute of limitations had expired, but the judge did not close the cases. Instead, he set the date of the kiss not to 1 September, but to the day Andrei and Mark appeared at the police station. According to their lawyer, this was a violation:
“Our courts are resetting the date of events of administrative offences and, judging by the court ruling, seem to have concluded that apparently, the kiss happened right in the office of a Centre ‘E’ officer.”
The young people have appealed the court’s decision again.