A court in Moscow has fined a student a total of 302,000 rubles (approx. US$3,300) over saved images of two women kissing and a rainbow flag. This was reported by the outlet “Ostorozhno, Moskva” (“Careful, Moscow”), citing the young person, who asked not to be named.
According to him, he saved the images on his VKontakte page back in 2018, when he was still at school. He described being detained and taken to the police.
“It was my birthday. As I was coming out of the entrance, they took me by the arms and put me in a minibus. In one day, we were taken to the district police department, then the prosecutor’s office and the court; it took five hours in total. While we were driving in the minibus, I deleted all my saved items and hid my profile,” Ostorozhno, Moskva quotes the student as saying.
The police drew up three charges against him under the article on “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” (Art. 6.21, Code of Administrative Offences) due to the images of women kissing. Another charge—under the article for displaying extremist symbols (Art. 20.3 of the Code)—was brought against the student over the rainbow flag.
For the first three charges, the young man was fined a total of 300,000 rubles (approx. US$3,275), and for the “extremist symbols” article—an additional fine of 2,000 rubles (approx. US$22).
Asya Sokolova for OVD-Info
The adoption of the “LGBT propaganda” law marked not only widespread censorship but also intensified repression against LGBTQ people and the organisations that support them. With the designation of the “International LGBT Movement” as an “extremist organisation,” this pressure has increased once again.
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