Chronicle of pressure on LGBTQ people: Human rights news from Russia, court updates & analysis | 76 related articles

24.03.2025

16:13

A protocol on “LGBT propaganda” (Part 1, Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) has been drawn up against a 60-year-old resident of Belovo, a city in the Kemerovo region of Siberia. This was reported by Vesti Kuzbass.

The man was detained after videos appeared on social media showing him walking down the street in a women’s jacket and “making indecent proposals to passersby.”

19.03.2025

15:22

Moscow

A 21-year-old Moscow resident has been sentenced to 10 days’ detention for having “saved” images with rainbows and LGBT-themed memes. This was reported by the channel “Ostorozhno, Moskva.”

The woman was arrested on 18 March under the article on the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” (Art. 6.21 of the Administrative Code). She faced six charges at once because of images published between 2016 and 2018. In addition to arrest, the woman from Moscow was also fined. The amount of the fine is unknown.

Case materials show that the presence of “LGBT propaganda” was established by an expert. The expert stated that the woman had posted on social networks “an image of a person wrapped in a flag that is the international symbol of the LGBT community, specifically the ‘Rainbow Flag,’ holding a wand in one hand and an energy drink in the other, with captions on the image: ‘I am the fairy of gay energy drinks and cats,’ ‘Vzhukh and you’re a f*ggot’” (original spelling preserved).

18.03.2025

16:36

Russia

Russian online streaming platforms have cut a scene from the American sitcom Silicon Valley in which startup founders discuss masturbating other men. This was reported by Baza.

In the final episode of the first season, the main characters take part in a startup competition and joke that they are prepared to masturbate every man in the audience if it would help them win, summarises Mediazona. The programmers then start coming up with an algorithm for how to do this most efficiently. This three-minute scene is missing from the version of the show available on platforms such as Kinopoisk, Okko and Ivi.

17.03.2025

16:55

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).

27.02.2025

11:37

Tula Oblast

Sergey Sosov, who was convicted in the case involving a collage with Hitler, has been fined two thousand roubles (approximately US$22) for displaying LGBTQ symbols. This was reported by the law enforcement-linked Telegram channel “Tula. EkstremiZm”; the case details can be found on the court’s website.

Sosov was found guilty under the article on the display of prohibited symbols (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Offences Code). The case was heard by the Plavsky Interdistrict Court in Tula region, south of Moscow, on 20 December.

The reason for the fine was certain images posted on VKontakte.

In December 2023, Sosov was sentenced to three years of compulsory labour, having been found guilty of insulting the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland online. Then, in December 2024, the man was detained for evading his punishment in the form of compulsory labour, as he had failed to arrive at the correctional centre. According to the “Tula. EkstremiZm” publication, after this, the remainder of Sergey Sosov’s sentence was converted to imprisonment. He is now being held in Penal Colony No. 5 in Tula region.

17.02.2025

20:58

The Tagansky District Court in Moscow has fined the online writers’ platform Wattpad 3.5 million roubles (approximately US$39,000) for failing to remove prohibited information (Part 2, Article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by the press service of Moscow courts and noted by Mediazona.

The protocol was prompted by the publication of “works about same-sex sexual relationships,” according to a report from the outlet ‘Govorit i Pokazyvaet Moskva’ (Moscow Speaks and Shows).

Representatives of Wattpad accepted responsibility. They added that service moderators remove content “prohibited by Russian law,” but cannot always do so promptly because “the platform operates globally and has more than 90 million users.”

Wattpad is an online service where anyone can publish their book.

13:51

Krasnodar Krai

In a nightclub in Krasnodar, a major city in southern Russia, a raid was carried out on the night of 15 February. Law enforcement officers detained two women. This was reported by the regional police press office.

At the time of the raid, there were around 200 people in the venue.

According to the police press office, the two detainees are “supporters of an organisation banned and declared extremist on the territory of the Russian Federation”—most likely referring to the LGBTQ community.

Protocols were drawn up against the women under the article on “LGBTQ propaganda” (Part 1, Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences). Law enforcement officers also issued warnings to twelve other clubgoers about the inadmissibility of breaking the law.

09.02.2025

14:30

Vladimir Oblast

In Vladimir, a city to the east of Moscow, a cashier was fired from Pyaterochka supermarket after a customer filmed and insulted them over their makeup, reported local pro-government journalist Aleksandr Stepanov on his Telegram channel.

“One of these so-called defenders of traditional values must be feeling a lot better: that cashier was fired from Pyaterochka. Whatever the case, I don’t consider mocking a person to be a traditional value—though apparently, some people do,” he wrote.

The Vladimir-based outlet Dovod reports that this information was confirmed by a source in the local branch of the Interior Ministry. The outlet describes the cashier as a transgender woman, but there has been no definite information about this person’s gender identity.

Recently, a video was circulating on social media, filmed by a customer who insulted the cashier for wearing makeup. The customer used several homophobic slurs.

“Guys are dying for faggots like you, is that it, you jerk, fuck? Why are you wearing makeup, why the hell are you doing your eyebrows? You should be a man too,” the customer said to the Pyaterochka staff member. He also expressed outrage: “Why the hell do they hire faggots?”

After this, “Veterans of Russia” demanded an explanation from the X5 Group, which operates the Pyaterochka supermarket chain. They also filed complaints with the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, requesting an investigation “to check for possible breaches of the law related to LGBT propaganda.”

21.01.2025

21:40

Temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea

A 30-year-old Crimean, Asan O., has been fined 100,000 rubles (approximately US$1,100) under the article on “LGBT propaganda” (part 3, article 6.21 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences). The information was discovered by Verstka.

The reason was a video posted on Odnoklassniki showing several people holding a rainbow flag and a photo of Vladimir Putin with makeup. The video was captioned: “There are GAYS working in Putin’s administration.”

At the court hearing, the man explained that he had not uploaded the video to his own page, but had simply given a “like” to a post published by an acquaintance. After that, the post appeared on the Crimean’s profile. Verstka notes that this is indeed how the “like” system on Odnoklassniki works.

09:43

Moscow

The Dorogomilovsky Court in Moscow has issued Lev Mironov a fine for kissing a statue of Metro builders at Elektrozavodskaya station “in front of underage friends.” Activatica drew attention to the case.

The young man was found guilty under the article on “LGBT propaganda” (Part 2, Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The amount of the fine is not specified, but the court decision states that “non-traditional” in this case consists of two elements: “not directed at a person; directed at a depiction of someone of the same gender.”

The video—where teenagers attack a Yandex courier, seize his box of food, run out onto the road and kiss the monument—originally appeared on the “Pravye Highlights” Telegram channel.

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Chronicle of pressure on LGBTQ people — Page 7