Russia adds the “international LGBT movement” to its list of “terrorist and extremist” entities.

This Friday Russia added the “international LGBT movement” to its list “terrorist and extremist” people and entities, This was reported in a note from the financial intelligence service consulted by AFP on Friday.

The decision was announced after the Supreme Court declared this movement “extremist” in November, which essentially meant the legalization of LGTBQ activism in the country.

President Vladimir Putin, recently re-elected for a new six-year term, has long claimed to defend “family” and religion against a “decadent” and even “satanic” West.

Since the beginning of the military campaign in Ukraine launched in February 2022, the Russian authorities have simultaneously, and increasingly, repressed sexual minorities.

On Wednesday, the authorities announced, for example, that they had placed the executives of a bar in the Urals region, who now risk a sentence of up to ten years in prison for LGBT “extremism”.

According to the prosecution, “during the investigation it was established that the accused, people with a non-traditional sexual orientation (…) also support the opinions and activities of the international public LGBT association, banned in our country.”

This is the first criminal case for this reason, although several Russian citizens have been convicted in recent weeks fines for posting photos with rainbow flags or, in the case of two women, for dissemination on the Internet a video of them kissing.

Since 2013, a law in Russia prohibits the “propaganda” among minors of “non-traditional sexual relations”.

This legislation was significantly expanded in late 2022, to ban any form of LGBT “propaganda” in the media, internet, books and films.

In July 2023, Russian deputies also voted on a law that pprohibits transgender people from undergoing surgery and hormone therapies.