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A court in Russia sentenced a manager of a gay bar and an art director to two months of pretrial custody.
It marks the first instance of individuals being targeted for “extremist LGBT organization” after the Kremlin brought in anti-LGBTQ+ laws last year.
In November 2023, the country’s Supreme Court designated the “international LGBT social movement” an extremist organization and banned its activities inside Russia.
The maximum sentence for organizing an extremist community is up to 10 years in prison.
The court in Orenburg, 150 kilometers from the Kazakh border, said in a statement: “During the investigation it was established that the accused, being persons with non-traditional sexual orientation … worked in the bar ‘Pose’ and ensured its functioning.”
After the court ruling late last year, law enforcement has conducted several raids on LGBTQ+-friendly bars, clubs and saunas across Russia, often with the support of local right-wing activists.
The raid on “Pose” was first reported by a far-right organization. It released a video showing individuals, some half-naked, being forced to the ground and interrogated.
Following the classification of the LGBTQ+ movement as an extremist organization in Russia, several individuals have been fined or arrested for “displaying extremist symbols,” including a 24-year-old woman detained for five days for wearing rainbow-colored earrings.
Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.
