London – An interview with a gay artist living in Brazil, published more than a year ago, told Yury Dud, a journalist from Russia and YouTuber with more than 10 million subscribers, for “promoting sexual relations between minors” at 120,000 rubles (approximately R$ 11,000) earned a fine. .

While the country has been limiting what the law considers “gay advertising” to children since 2013, and parliament plans to expand the ban on “non-traditional sex”-related content targeting people of all ages, Yury Dud’s punishment may not be solely from the United States. old interview

He was classified as a “foreign agent” by Vladimir Putin’s government in April due to his massive success on the website and his anti-war positions – a term used for individuals and companies that receive funds from abroad. And he was legally contesting the label.

Russian journalist did not comment on the sentence

The 35-year-old journalist who was fined is one of Russia’s biggest media stars. He was born in Germany and has been living in the country since he was four years old.

After a career in the Russian media, in 2017 he founded the Internet channel dedicated to interviews with celebrities. Even before the war, criticism of sensitive Kremlin issues was commonplace.

In 2019, Yury Dud was openly criticized by government spokesman Dmitry Peskov for his speech while receiving the GQ Magazine Person of the Year award. The journalist asked colleagues to break the silence on police brutality, corruption and election manipulation.

Interviewing Dud in March 2021, Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich lives in Brazil and is a well-known performance artist and theater director. The interview was recorded in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and has been viewed almost 4 million times.

They mostly talk about art. Among the places to visit is the Parque Lage in Rio.

Despite showing nude scenes in the artwork interpreted by the interviewee, the program doesn’t seem to have bothered the Kremlin until June this year for alleged gay propaganda.

Then24 news site published a link to the case file in which the journalist was fined, showing that the case was opened on June 28 and concluded on July 7.

At the time the fine was announced, the Moscow Lefertovo Court dismissed Dud’s appeal against inclusion in the list of foreign agents. He was listed by the Ministry of Justice on April 15, after describing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “imperial madness”.

Persons or media organizations classified as such must declare any foreign investment and comply with a number of bureaucratic protocols.

Also Read | Tightening Russia’s ‘foreign agent’ law will likely increase press pressure

In November 2021, the journalist was fined another 100,000 rubles for “drug propaganda”.

Pavel Chikov, the human rights lawyer who provided legal aid to Dud, argues that, in addition to its publication in March 2021, more than a year ago, the conversation with the Brazilian-based artist was not dedicated to the topic of homosexuality and was labeled. for those over the age of 18.

But more recent interviews may have angered the Russian government.

A little over a month ago, Yury Dud was interviewed Nikolay Solodnikov is a celebrity in Russia. He developed an open libraries project and created a YouTube channel in 2018 to interview figures from the art world.

He is married to journalist and documentarian Tell Gordeeva, who also has a channel on the platform, and has interviewed people against the Putin government since the beginning of the war, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov.

In the conversation, Yuri Dud and Solodnikov do not even get along politically. But they talk about the war and the jailed journalist expresses their attitude towards the regime and President Putin. The show has been watched more than 6 million times.

The journalist’s last post on Twitter pinned to the top of the profile is dated April 12. She is promoting a program in which she interviews a Russian couple living in Budapest who are creating a humanitarian system for Ukrainian refugees.

In the opening and during the program, Yury Dud tells the drama of those who were forced to leave Ukraine due to the Russian occupation.

Russia wants to ban ‘gay propaganda’ and ‘unconventional values’

A day before the announcement of the fine imposed on journalist Yury Dud under the law banning the broadcasting of LGBT content to minors, Russia confirmed its intention to extend the ban on content related to “non-traditional sexual relations” to all media and all age groups. .

The plans have been confirmed by government agency Tass.

The country does not criminalize sexual intercourse between two adults. However, the dissemination of “gay propaganda”, that is, content related to homosexuals, in the press, cultural and artistic products is currently punishable by fines and even imprisonment.

This was the law used to justify the punishment for the journalist.

Also Read | Asian and Middle Eastern countries without LGBT rights veto ‘Buzz Lightyear’ for kissing between women

“I fully support your position” [presidente da Duma, o parlamento russo] Vyacheslav Volodin will forbid the propaganda of unconventional values,” he said.

“We propose to ban such advertisements regardless of the age of the viewer (offline, in the media, on the internet, on social media and in online cinemas),” he added.

According to the Tass agency, this will be done based on changes to the law that already penalizes the dissemination of LGBT propaganda to children under the age of 16.

Also Read | Hollywood actress turns hero after journalist was forced to take on her LGBT relationship

Khinshtein also told Telegram that lawmakers want to “prohibit not only propaganda, but also the dissemination among children of other information that displays unconventional sexual relations or perversions.”

Before this announcement, according to Tass, the head of the Duma published in the messaging application that he supports the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b“banning unconventional values” in Russia.

Being gay was considered a crime in Russia until 1993 and was considered a mental illness until 1999, according to Reuters.

The law, in effect since 2013, against the spread of “gay propaganda” against children, restricts many manifestations of the LGBT community, including holding pride parades.

Activists point out that expanding this law is to further censor Russian and foreign homosexuals living in the country.

read it too