Russian police raided several LGBTI entertainment venues in Moscow on the night of Friday to Saturday. According to Russian media, the police did this under the guise of ‘drug raids’. The Moscow Times writes that police officers visited an LGBT nightclub and a sauna, among others.
One of the locations where the police raided was a nightclub, where about three hundred visitors were partying. “The party stopped in the middle [de politie] the music and they entered. (…) At the exit they took photos of passports,” an eyewitness told it Telegram channel Oztorozhno Novosti. According to the news channel, an unknown number of visitors were arrested.
The raids come less than 48 hours after the Russian Supreme Court labeled the ‘international LGBTI movement’ – a non-existent organization – as ‘extremist’. The Court thus affirmed the judgment of a lower court in a case brought by the Ministry of Justice.
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In recent years, sexual minorities have found it increasingly difficult in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For example, a law was recently passed that labels transsexuality, transvestism and pedophilia as diseases. The Supreme Court’s confirmation means that any LGBT person can be labeled an ‘extremist’ and face years in prison.
The intimidating measures appear to work. A gay club in St. Petersburg closed its doors on Friday in response to the Court’s ruling. And many LGBTI people have left Russia in recent years. Olga Baranova, director of the Moscow Community Center for LGBTI Initiatives, fears that many will follow suit, she said against the AP news agency. She also said that the repression of LGBTI people in Russia is a distraction from all “the other problems that abound in Russia.”