A Russian court has sentenced three employees of a bar to prison for participating in what authorities describe as the 'international LGBT community', marking the first criminal conviction under a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that labelled the LGBTQ community an 'extremist organisatio'.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
According to AFP, the court in Orenburg, a city near Russia's border with Kazakhstan, said it had delivered the verdict in the "first criminal case" for "organising and participating in the activities of an extremist organisation -- the international LGBT movement."
According to the court, the owner, administrator and art director of the Pose bar were found guilty of organising "events united by the theme of demonstrating solidarity with people of non-traditional sexual orientation", the legal term used by Russian authorities to refer to LGBTQ people.
The court sentenced the three to prison terms ranging from just over two years to seven years. It also imposed a fine of one million roubles (around $13,000) on the bar's owner.
Russian media identified the owner as 37-year-old Vyacheslav Khasanov, who was sentenced to seven years in prison. Art director Alexander Klimov, 23, received two years and three months, while administrator Diana Kamilyanova, 30, was sentenced to six years and three months. "None of them pleaded guilty," the court said according to AFP.
The verdict comes after Russia's Supreme Court in 2023 outlawed what it called the "international LGBT movement" as an "extremist organisation", a decision that significantly expanded the government's legal powers to prosecute LGBTQ-related activities.
Russia has steadily tightened restrictions on LGBTQ rights in recent years, a trend that accelerated after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Authorities have since carried out raids on LGBTQ clubs and bars, while courts have imposed fines and short jail terms on people displaying LGBTQ symbols, including rainbow flags on clothing, jewellery and posters.
The Kremlin has defended the crackdown as part of President Vladimir Putin's push to uphold 'traditional values', extending restrictions to films, books, art and cultural expression.
According to Human Rights Watch, the 2023 ruling "outlaw[ed] as 'extremist' the 'International LGBT Movement'—a legal and factual mischaracterization of a diverse, decentralized global human rights cause". The organisation said that between March and May 2026, Russian courts banned nine LGBTQ groups across seven regions as "extremist", including Coming Out, the Russian LGBT Network and Centre T, while a case against the Alliance of Straights and LGBT for Equality remains pending.
