Russia adds ‘LGBT movement’ to extremist blacklist

MOSCOW, March 22 — Russia’s financial watchdog said today it had added what it calls the “international LGBT movement” to its list of terrorists and extremists.

The implication of its listing was not immediately clear.

The Rosfinmonitoring watchdog has the power to freeze bank accounts of specific entities named on the list, but did not name any person or organisation on its website.

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Russia’s Supreme Court declared the movement as “extremist” last November, without saying to whom it referred but effectively banning LGBTQ activism across the country.

The Kremlin has taken a conservative turn since launching its offensive in Ukraine two years ago, casting the conflict as a battleground against the West and its ideas.

Russia banned what it calls “gay propaganda” among adults in 2022, extending an earlier law that forbade it among minors. That effectively outlawed any representation of “non-traditional sexual relations” in public and in the media.

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A Russian court on Wednesday ordered two employees of a gay bar to be held in pre-trial detention, accusing them of organising an “extremist organisation”, the first such case after the Supreme Court decision. — AFP