LGBTQ+

On the 30th of November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court recognised the international public LGBTI movement as extremist, effectively outlawing all LGBTI-related activity.

The phrase “international public LGBTI movement” does not refer to a clearly defined group, and the label of “extremist” carries serious legal repercussions. Consequently, all those involved in LGBTI-related activities or with a known, or assumed, association with the LGBTI community may be subject to criminal prosecution. Under Article 282 of the Criminal Code, participants may face up to five years’ imprisonment whilst organisers and donors may face up to ten years.

Furthermore, having the label of “extremist” entails a ban on the symbols of the organisation, such as the pride flag, or any other sexual orientation-based flags. Continuing to display these symbols may result in up to 15 days of administrative arrest under Article 20 of the Code of Administrative Offences, and repeatedly doing so constitutes a crime which carries the maximum penalty of four years’ imprisonment. To make matters worse, individuals who face prosecution often face employment restrictions, have their bank accounts blocked, and are temporarily banned from standing in elections. As stated by Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the ruling risks resulting in a blanket ban on LGBTI organisations with far reaching violations of the rights to freedom of association, expression and peaceful assembly, as well as the right to be free from discrimination Russia’s targeting of the LGBTI community expands beyond the courts ruling. In December 2022, ten months into the invasion of Ukraine, the Duma – Russia’s lower house of parliament – found time to expand the scope of the 2013 *gay propaganda” law. Originally, the law served to “protect children from homosexuality as the Russian government believes it contradicts traditional family values. The 2022 amendment expanded the law to all age groups, prohibiting the distribution of propaganda that is viewed to promote non-heterosexual relationships and gender dysphoria amongst minors.

Why would Russia, amidst a protracted and painstaking war, prioritise the discrimination of LGBTI people? Some think it may have been a ploy to distract the Russian public from recent military losses during the invasion of Ukraine. However, others believe the restrictions have a significantly broader objective: to distinguish Russia from the West and, in doing so, secure political support.

Upon announcing the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the West “sought to destroy traditional values and force on us their false values that would erode us”, further stating that the West’s attitudes “are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature.” According to ILGA-Europe, there is growing support among societies for LGBTI people; acceptance rates are even growing in traditionally conservative countries such as Georgia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, and Ukraine. In painting the West as a neo-colonist threat and by using the growing acceptance of LGBTI people in eastern European countries as evidence, Putin is able to portray the LGBTI community as both a foreign threat and the enemy within.

This is made further evident in a speech made by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox bishop, who was far more overt in attacking Wester culture and the LGBTI community, ultimately using Western values and religious salvation in order to legitimise the invasion of Ukraine: “Donbas has fundamentally refused to accept the so-called values that are being offered by those aspiring for world power. There is a specific test of loyalty to these powers … This test is very straightforward and at the same time horrifying – the gay parade … It is about something different and much more important than politics. It is about human salvation, about on which side of God the Saviour humankind will end up.”

Ultimately, the Russian government has positioned itself as the defender of “traditional values” in order to consolidate their conservative voter base in the run up to the 2024 presidential vote. The Supreme Court’s ruling is but another step in Russia’s anti-LGBTI measures, and, in many ways, it can be seen as the successor of the 2022 “gay propaganda” law amendment. The fact that the recent ruling is a product of the judiciary and not of the Russian government is not necessarily an indicator that their anti-LGBTI stances are independent of one another. The International Committee of Jurists have expressed concerns that “elements of law and practice in the appointment process do not adequately safeguard the independence and quality of the judiciary”, specifically pointing to the “requirement for candidates to secure authorizations, outside of the legal procedure for appointment” and “the role of the executive in the appointment processes”. Moreover, the 2018 Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics revealed that only 24.7% of the Russian public believe their judges to be independent of representatives of federal and local power. Without sufficient judicial independence, there is no guarantee that the ruling is not simply an extension of Putin’s political agenda.

Struthers has advocated that we must “call on the Russian authorities to immediately review this ruling. The international community must stand in solidarity with the Russian LGBTI community, demanding an end to these oppressive actions and safeguarding the principles of equality, freedom, and justice for all.” The Supreme Court’s ruling represents the complete rejection of universal human rights, undoing decades of Russian LGBTI activist work and paralysing the future functioning of activist groups. It forces LGBTI individuals to remain in the closet, robbing them of their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, and their right to be free from discrimination. There must be international pressure on Russia to review the Supreme Court’s ruling; the Russian LGBTI people are in urgent need of support, especially at this critical juncture.