Russian police have raided at least three gay bars and a men’s sauna in Moscow. The actions come less than 48 hours after Russia’s Supreme Court declared the ‘international LGBTI movement’ an extremist organization and banned all activities that fall under it.
According to local media, a raid took place at a nightclub where a large dance party was being held. The raids are said to have been carried out under the pretext of a drug raid. A witness said the music stopped during the party. Officers then allegedly asked visitors for identification and took photos of passports.
Several gay bars will remain permanently closed due to the court’s decision. Central Station, one of the oldest gay clubs in St. Petersburg, announced its closure Friday evening. In recent years, Russia has increasingly taken action against expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity that do not correspond to ‘traditional values’. Previously, ‘LGBT propaganda’ was banned.
Music channel AIVA was also fined 500,000 rubles, approximately 5,000 euros, for broadcasting the song. Branch Krasivo (‘So beautiful’) by the Russian Sergei Lazarev. The singer is a star in Russia and has already represented his country twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. According to a court in St. Petersburg, the channel is guilty of spreading LGBTI propaganda, because in the music video ‘two people of the same sex’ ‘caress’ each other’s hands.
Major panic
The precise consequences of the court’s decision are not yet known. According to Sphere Foundation, an organization that promotes LGBTI rights, there has been ‘great panic’ because it is not clear who can be prosecuted. UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged Russian authorities to repeal laws “that discriminate against LGBTI people or impose inappropriate restrictions on human rights defenders.”
Max Olenichev, a human rights lawyer who works with Russia’s LGBTI community, previously told the AP that the decision effectively bans organized activities to defend the rights of LGBTI people. “In practice, it may happen that the Russian authorities, with this decision in hand, use the rules against LGBTI initiatives working in Russia,” the lawyer said.
Many people will consider leaving Russia before they become targets, suspects Olga Baranova, director of the Community Center for LGBTI Initiatives in Moscow. “It is clear to us that they are once again portraying us as a domestic enemy to shift attention from all the other problems that abound in Russia,” Baranova told AP.
At the request of the judiciary in Russia, the ‘international LGBTI movement’ was added to a list of more than a hundred organizations that are said to be extremist on Thursday. This gives the movement the same status as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islamic State (IS), human rights organizations and the anti-corruption foundation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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