Chronicle of pressure on LGBTQ people: Human rights news, court updates & analysis | 62 related articles

26.05.2025

17:30

A court in Magnitogorsk, a major industrial city in the Urals, has fined photographer Tatyana Gladskikh two thousand roubles (US$22) over a photo with rainbow flags that she published on a stock image website. This was reported by the Baza Telegram channel.

The woman was found guilty under the article concerning the display of extremist organisation symbols (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). Gladskikh was accused over a photo she had published on the American stock photo site Dreamstime.

According to the court ruling, Gladskikh “published a photo where she and another woman are posed against a backdrop of a flag with six rainbow-coloured stripes, wearing bracelets in the same colours on their wrists.” The court claimed that the photographer knows “the rainbow flag is a symbol of the LGBT movement,” which has been designated an extremist organisation in Russia.

Gladskikh admitted her guilt and removed the photo. The case against her was opened in response to a complaint from an unknown person. In Gladskikh’s opinion, the complaint could have come from those who had used her photos without permission and had been held accountable as a result.

“I’ve been working with stock photo agencies for a long time, and when I travel abroad and see my own photos, I’m confident they were purchased. But when I see my photos in Russia, I’m 99 per cent sure they were stolen. That’s why I signed an agreement with a legal firm to protect my rights. For example, there’s a banner with my photo hanging up in our city. I write to the organisation: ‘I’m sure you didn’t purchase it and this is a violation.’ They just tell me to get lost. Then my lawyers take them to court—those who stole my photos get fined. So I think there are quite a few angry people out there. Apparently, they’ve purposefully started searching for photos like this. It’s impossible to stumble on them by accident. They would have had to go to the site, search my profile and enter the exact abbreviation,” Baza quotes Gladskikh as saying.

24.05.2025

14:43

Sverdlovsk Oblast

Security forces carried out a raid at a party in Kamensk-Uralsky, a city in Sverdlovsk region in the Urals. This was reported by TASS, citing a source within the security services.

“In Kamensk-Uralsky, in the Second Workers’ Settlement, on Second Polevaya Street, in the early hours of Saturday, the ‘Russian Community’ and law enforcement stopped LGBT obscurantism. For an ‘exciting journey into the past’ at a ‘90s-themed’ party, the organisers had invited drag performers,” TASS quoted its source as saying.

In total, security officers detained 26 people. They were released after fingerprinting and inspection. A protocol was drawn up against the “organiser” for “LGBTQ propaganda” (Article 6.21 of the Administrative Offences Code).

The TASS source added that “the issue of initiating a criminal case” under the article on organising the activities of an extremist organisation (Part 1, Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code) is under consideration.

21.05.2025

15:33

Saint Petersburg

The St Petersburg bookshop “Podpisnye Izdaniya” has been fined 800,000 roubles (US$9,000) under the so-called “LGBT propaganda” law (Art. 6.21, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by Mediazona.

The Kuybyshevsky District Court found “LGBT propaganda” in the books “On Women” and “Against Interpretation and Other Essays” by Susan Sontag, as well as “Everybody’s Body” by Olivia Laing.

A representative of the bookshop and the defence emphasised that the writer and publisher, not the shop, are responsible for the books’ content. They also noted that these works were not on the list of extremist materials.

On 10 April, law enforcement officers came to the bookshop for an inspection. They seized several dozen books mentioning LGBT topics. After the inspection, “Podpisnye Izdaniya” was given a list of 48 books to remove from the shelves.

19.05.2025

17:22

Apple has been fined 5 million roubles (approx. US$55,000) in Russia under two charges of “LGBT propaganda” (Part 3, Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by Mediazona (1, 2).

The charges were heard at the Tagansky District Court in Moscow. The hearings were held behind closed doors at the request of Apple’s representatives.

The reason for the charges is unknown. They were filed against the Irish company Apple Distribution International LTD, which is the founder of the Russian legal entity “Apple Rus.”

Today, the court will also consider another administrative case for “LGBT propaganda” and a second one for refusing to censor content at the request of Russian authorities.

17:30 Apple has been fined a further 2.5 million roubles (approx. US$27,500) under an “LGBT propaganda” charge, reports Mediazona. The total amount of fines under the three charges has reached 7.5 million roubles (approx. US$82,500).

18.05.2025

09:48

Saint Petersburg

Law enforcement officers carried out a raid at Department 57, a club in St Petersburg, and detained blogger Vlados Miros (real name: Vladislav Morenov). This was reported overnight between 17 and 18 May by several sources: “Ostorozhno, novosti”, VChK-OGPU, REN-TV and Baza.

According to eyewitnesses who spoke to reporters, officers from the Centre for Countering Extremism arrived at the club during the blogger’s performance. They took Morenov off stage, and also detained his choreographer, Anastasia Lukina. The reason for the raid and subsequent detention is unknown.

It is also unclear whether any club visitors were detained. Eyewitnesses told “Ostorozhno, novosti” that officers lined people up against the wall at the entrance and photographed their passports.

After detaining the blogger and his choreographer, the police left the club. Later, venue representatives announced that Vlados Miros’ DJ set was cancelled “for technical reasons.” The current whereabouts of the blogger and his colleague are also unknown.

Vlados Miros is a beauty and lifestyle blogger. His Instagram page has 1.8 million followers.

12:01 Blogger Vlados Miros and choreographer Anastasia Lukina were released after questioning at the police station. This was reported by “Fontanka,” citing the Main Department of Internal Affairs of St Petersburg.

According to the publication, police went to Department 57 after a phone call from the Moscow region. The raid was prompted by information about “an extremist party promoting LGBT propaganda.”

“Fontanka” noted that police held a “preventive conversation” with the party organisers and “found no breaches of public order among the 52 attendees.”

15.05.2025

15:55

Novgorod Oblast

Because of a meme featuring the frog character Pepe and a photo of Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, a court in Novgorod Region fined Georgy Rezankov under the article on displaying extremist symbols (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The case card of the ruling was discovered by Verstka.

The neighbourhood police officer who drew up the protocol found the saved images on Georgy Rezankov’s VKontakte account. He stated that the photos included “the symbol of the international social movement LGBT.”

The court decision notes that one image features “an anthropomorphic frog from comics, wearing a six-coloured wig,” and the other is a “historical photograph” of Zetkin and Luxemburg with a six-colour flag depicted.

The Novgorod Region resident told the court that the Pepe meme “has nothing to do with LGBT.” He added that the photo of Zetkin and Luxemburg “also does not indicate LGBT propaganda, although some researchers believe they were in a close relationship and lived together.”

The argument that Rezankov had posted the images in 2020, when the “LGBT movement” had not yet been declared extremist in Russia, was not accepted by the judge. She stated that the man had committed an ongoing offence and should have “brought his page into compliance with the law.” The court fined Georgy Rezankov 1,500 rubles (approx. US$16).

As Verstka points out, there were also errors in the court’s ruling. The German feminist activists, instead of being named Zetkin and Luxemburg, became “Tsentkin” and “Lyuksinbur.” When listing the colours of the rainbow flag, the last colour, violet, was replaced a second time with orange.

14:07

Saint Petersburg

The court has returned the “LGBT propaganda” case (part 1 of article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences) against “Podpisnye Izdaniya” to the police. This was reported by Darya Lebedeva, head of the joint press service for St Petersburg.

On 10 April, law enforcement came to the bookshop for an inspection. They confiscated several dozen books mentioning LGBT topics. After the inspection, “Podpisnye Izdaniya” was given a list of 48 books to remove from the shop’s shelves.

The so-called “LGBT propaganda” was allegedly found in three books: “Everybody” by Olivia Laing, and Susan Sontag’s “On Women” and “Against Interpretation and Other Essays,” said Darya Lebedeva. “Podpisnye Izdaniya” disagreed with the protocol.

The case was sent to magistrate court section No. 203, which then referred it by jurisdiction to Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg. The court found procedural violations in the protocol.

“The case statement is incomplete. The protocol mentions witnesses and victims, but provides no data on them. Some copies of the submitted documents are not certified. The printed publications themselves are absent (and I would have liked to see them, really). So, the protocol is deficient,” wrote Lebedeva.

16 May—Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg on 15 May re-registered the administrative case of “LGBT propaganda” against “Podpisnye Izdaniya.” It is presumed to be the same case the court returned to the police on 12 May.

11.05.2025

20:57

The TV channel TV3 has blurred pacifist and queer symbols on the clothing of a character in the French animated series “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.” The Telegram channel “Khlopok” (“Clap”) drew attention to this.

In the fourth episode of the sixth season, the character Mylène Haprèle appeared with several badges on her overalls. The censorship targeted both a badge featuring the LGBTQIA+ progress pride flag and a badge with a peace sign coloured in the Rastafarian flag’s hues.

According to the authors of “Khlopok,” the second badge may have been blurred out because Rastafarianism is associated with cannabis use. Another possible reason is the peace symbol itself, which is often used by opponents of the war in Ukraine.

06.05.2025

13:44

The Ural artist Alisa Gorshenina has been fined 100,000 roubles (approximately US$1,100) under the “LGBT propaganda” offence (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code), she shared on Instagram.

On 24 April, Gorshenina went to the police station for an administrative offence report to be filed, but in the end three reports were drawn up: for “discrediting the army” (part 1, article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code), “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) and displaying banned symbols (part 1, article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

That night, the artist was held in a basement cell in the police station in Nizhny Tagil, a city in the Urals. In the morning, she was taken to court in Yekaterinburg, also in the Urals, where she was jailed for 10 days on the banned symbols report.

“From 25 April to 4 May, I was held in the local special detention facility. The day I spent in the basement and the police station in Nizhny Tagil was counted towards my sentence,” Gorshenina said. “I’m not sure I want to say anything about the detention facility right now, so I’ll keep it brief with a quote from my personal diary, which I kept throughout these days: ‘This is not an unbearable place, but being here is unbearable.’”

On 5 May, Gorshenina was fined for the two remaining reports, totalling 145,000 roubles (approximately US$1,600).

05.05.2025

20:50

Moscow

A Moscow resident has been fined under the “LGBT propaganda” law (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) because of a pornographic meme entitled “Initiation into Nazis (bones).” This decision was highlighted by the publication Parni+.

According to the court’s decision, the Moscow resident’s page contained a two-minute video in which a man shaves his head, laces up white shoelaces on high boots, and then performs oral sex with two skinheads. Several times during the video, images of a swastika are shown. At the end of the video, the text “Join our ranks!!!” appears.

The authorities also found “LGBT propaganda” in two photographs on the Moscow resident’s page. One of these has now been deleted; in the other, two men with a rainbow umbrella are depicted as if about to kiss.

At the hearing, the young man said he had posted the photos and video “for humorous purposes.” The Babushkinsky District Court fined him 100,000 rubles (approximately US$1,070).

Because of the same video, the Moscow resident was also fined 2,000 rubles (approximately US$21) for displaying Nazi symbols (part 1, article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

Both decisions were issued by the court on 29 April.

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