News

On 3 January, the Yakutsk City Court fined Number One club-restaurant’s owner, the company LLC “Jinlun,” 250,000 roubles (approximately US$2,800), finding it guilty under the article on organising a mass gathering of people in a public place that resulted in a breach of public order (Part 1, Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The press service of the region’s courts reported this.

The owners of the club were charged over a show during which, according to the court, “people were present in a state of undress that demeaned human dignity” and there was “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations.”

On the afternoon of 2 January, in Number One, law enforcement arrived and detained bartenders, waiters and the executive director; there were no performers in the club-restaurant at the time. Earlier, the Yakutsk administrative commission’s Telegram channel reported that since 26 December shows had been held featuring “transgender women from Thailand and men of non-traditional sexual orientation.” Yakutsk is the capital city of the Sakha Republic in northeast Russia.

The head of the administrative commission, Felix Antonov, took part in the raid on the club. “In the videos circulated on social media, it is clear that they are transvestites. They were dancing with each other, promoting non-traditional values,” the official stated.

The magistrate of judicial district No. 463 in Troitsk has fined Anton Evdokimov, a resident of New Moscow, 100,000 rubles (approximately US$1,100) for a post in which he admitted to creating the “LGBTQ+ extremist organisation.” He is currently being held in a pre-trial detention centre in connection with another case. Telegram channel “Crime 6.21” and “Mediazona” drew attention to this.

The man was found guilty under the article on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations (Part 3 of Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The basis for the charge was two posts on Evdokimov’s VKontakte page on 6 December 2023—just a week after the non-existent “LGBT movement” was declared an extremist organisation.

The first post attributed to the man was a photo of a rainbow flag; the second was a tongue-in-cheek confession by Evdokimov in which he claimed he had founded the “LGBTQ+ extremist organisation.” According to the court’s decision, the man gave four approving assessments of the movement.

“Well, since LGBT has been banned, I have to come clean—I AM THE FOUNDER AND MAIN ORGANISER OF THE EXTREMIST ORGANISATION—LGBTQ+! I studied at a lyceum called ‘Rainbow’… that’s where they recruited me, and now I’m exposing all the homophobes to the Rainbow! Every time a homophobe looks at a rainbow—they get a tickling sensation in their arse and start craving to suck cock! It’s all my doing!) I’ll lure everyone into this lair! Boo! Beware, FSB suckers—waiting for you with a dumbbell—we’ll do some squats!,” wrote Anton Evdokimov.

At present, Evdokimov remains in a pre-trial detention centre on charges of “justifying terrorism” (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) over a post about the Crimean Bridge explosion. According to the court ruling, the day before his flat was searched—on 22 October—law enforcement officers found LGBTQ+ publications on his page. A relative of Evdokimov told OVD-Info that he had taken part in protests more than once, and that the case was initiated against him following a report from an unidentified individual.

The administrative commission of Yakutsk city hall has reported a local club for a show featuring transgender performers, according to a post on the commission’s Telegram channel.

The channel states that since 26 December, public “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations and gender transition” has been taking place at the Number One club “with the participation of invited transgender women from Thailand and men of non-traditional orientation.”

The commission accused the club of “LGBT propaganda” (Article 6.21, Part 1 of the Administrative Offences Code) and filed complaints with the prosecutor’s office and police. Under this article, legal entities can be fined up to 1 million rubles (around US$11,000) and have operations suspended for up to 90 days, while foreigners (Part 5, Article 6.21) face fines of up to 100,000 rubles (about US$1,100) or arrest for up to 15 days followed by deportation.

Officials reported the club after a Telegram channel, “Spicy Yakutia,” which has over 15,000 subscribers, filed a complaint about it. The channel drew attention to videos from the club, claiming that “the corruption of the male population” was happening right under the noses of the security forces and officials. The channel also published comments from subscribers demanding that the club be closed.

10:06 The outlet SakhaDay.ru reports that police detained the club’s executive director, bartenders and waiters for questioning. Security forces and officials who visited the club did not find the transgender performers there.

“The videos circulated on social media show that these are transvestites,” the head of the commission, Felix Antonov, told the outlet. “They were dancing with each other, promoting non-traditional values. We spoke with the club representatives but did not find the general director, only the executive director. He tried to defend himself, saying that unknown artists from Thailand had approached them the previous day and offered their services. But we pointed out that the show was advertised as running from 26 December until 8 January.”

The official added: “There will be no more such shows in Yakutsk. All the staff who were in the club have been taken to the police station for further questioning. It will now be up to the court to decide what happens next.”