Swapping rainbows for war anthems How the Kremlin’s anti-LGBTQ+ crackdown is reshaping queer clubs in Russia
Russia’s crackdown on queer spaces is intensifying, with police raids targeting gay clubs and LGBTQ+ events across the country. In the early hours of November 30, law enforcement raided three Moscow clubs — exactly one year after Russia’s Supreme Court designated the nonexistent “LGBT movement” as an extremist organization. Under mounting pressure, queer venues are rebranding, trading their identities for patriotism. BBC News Russian learned how these clubs are adapting to survive and what’s happening with court cases tied to Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Meduza shares a summary of their reporting in English.
The names of some individuals in this story have been changed for their safety.
On a Sunday morning in Yaroslavl, a man walked through the city wearing a dress and high heels. Without money or a phone, he had no choice but to make his way on foot from the police station, where he’d been held for more than 16 hours.
Kirill, a drag artist, had been at a farewell Halloween party at a local gay club that was closing down. While another drag queen was performing, riot police stormed the venue and forced everyone to the floor.
The performers and organizers were taken to a police station, still in full makeup and costumes. “They interrogated us, confiscated and searched our phones for anything related to our [sexual] orientation,” Kirill said. “We sat there until around 9:00 a.m.”
Kirill was charged with a misdemeanor for “LGBT propaganda.” A month later, he and five others were fined 50,000 rubles (about $470) each. Court records show that each case was heard in just 15 minutes. Though Kirill initially agreed to discuss the ordeal further, he deleted his Telegram account after the verdict.
Such raids on gay clubs in Russia have become increasingly common since November 2023, when Russia’s Supreme Court banned the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” — despite the fact that no such organization exists. And while Kirill avoided criminal charges, others haven’t been as fortunate. This year alone, six criminal cases have been opened for alleged “LGBT extremism.”
Rebranding to Z-branding
In the wake of the Russian Supreme Court’s decision, many queer venues have drastically altered their operations to survive. Criminal cases have been opened against employees and owners of gay clubs in at least four cities. In the eyes of law enforcement, the very existence of a gay club constitutes activities of a banned group, says Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the human rights project Department One.
The first criminal case for “LGBT extremism” was opened in March 2024 after a raid on Pose, a club in Orenburg. Police arrested the owner, art director, and administrator, charging them with “organizing activities for an extremist organization.”
Similar cases were launched this fall after raids on LGBTQ+ clubs in Chita, Kirov, and Voronezh, likely sparked by tips or denunciations. In Orenburg and Chita, members of the nationalist group Russian Community joined law enforcement during the raids, and in Kirov, a local news outlet had published reports on the city’s queer club.
Mikhail and Oleg work at a club in a major Russian city that was raided in October. “Show us where you fuck here,” one officer demanded, according to Mikhail. After the search, film crews entered the club with lights and cameras to record the raid. “But before that, the cops let all the women leave to create the illusion that only men were here,” Oleg said.
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These pressures have forced clubs to abandon LGBTQ+ symbols and events. The club where Mikhail and Oleg work no longer brands itself as a gay club. Management removed queer and BDSM-themed decor, dismantled private rooms, and rebranded drag performances as generic parody or theater shows. After the raid, management decided that traditional drag performances were no longer safe. “The same people who once wore dresses and makeup now sport fake beards and perform as hyper-masculine caricatures,” Mikhail said.
Other clubs have followed suit. Alexander Viltonov, who’s long worked in Moscow’s nightlife scene, described how one club in a major city rebranded entirely last year — changing its name, legal identity, and hiring female performers. “They’re still operating, and there haven’t been any complaints,” he noted.
Marketing has also shifted. Gone are promotional materials featuring the names of drag queens. And now, drag artists impersonate Russian pop stars like Valery Meladze and Philipp Kirkorov instead of international icons like Lady Gaga. Some clubs even incorporate patriotic themes to avoid scrutiny.
“Everywhere, performers were singing [the patriotic song] Mother Earth and impersonating [pro-war singer] Shaman, performing songs popular with Z-patriots,” Viltonov said.
Viltonov speculates that large clubs may have negotiated informal deals with the authorities, agreeing to remove LGBTQ+ branding in exchange for being allowed to operate. “They let you keep your clubs and your business, but you move all your focus elsewhere and stop presenting yourselves as gay clubs. Now, you’re just a club,” Viltonov explained. “But to maintain appearances, [the authorities] carry out raids from time to time to show the public that [they] were there.”
The new approach has alienated many patrons and artists, leading to dwindling attendance at queer clubs across Russia, Oleg, Mikhail, and Viltonov said. “People came here for the atmosphere, funny drag queens, and musical numbers,” Mikhail explained. “Now, one of our main halls is closed — there aren’t enough people.”
Drag was already struggling in Russia, and “these last raids finished it off,” said Oleg. Some prominent drag queens have fled the country, while others refuse to adopt male personas. Artists who continue to perform often arrive just before their set and leave immediately after, fearing another raid. “People who had spent over a decade honing their craft and building their careers suddenly lost everything,” Oleg said.
If in the past, Russia’s queer community was told to stay “behind closed doors,” now the government is pushing its way through those doors, Oleg continued. “Everyone used to say, ‘Do whatever you want, just keep it private.’ But now, even behind closed doors, it’s no longer allowed.”
Prosecuting thin air
Russia’s recent crackdown on LGBTQ+ people, spurred by the Supreme Court’s designation of the nonexistent “LGBT movement” as an extremist organization, has created a legal and social quagmire. While criminal cases have been launched against individuals and organizations, few details have surfaced, and none have gone to trial yet.
In court, prosecutors will need to formally prove the “centralized nature of actions in line with the framework outlined by the Supreme Court,” explains lawyer Stanislav Seleznev. The only issue is, no such centralized LGBTQ+ organization exists. “To date, no one — except the Justice Ministry official who filed the lawsuit and the Supreme Court judge who ruled on it — has seen this supposed secret global organization,” Seleznev noted.
Without established legal frameworks to prosecute an entity that doesn’t exist, courts and investigators may have to create new strategies to handle these cases. Instead of proving that the accused engaged in extremist actions, investigators will need to demonstrate that they “have a connection to the international LGBT movement,” which has already been banned, explained Yevgeny Smirnov from Department One. He suggested that investigators are likely to rely on “expert testimony” to label certain activities as LGBTQ+ “propaganda” or “recruitment.”
Raids on queer spaces have increased, with at least 12 carried out since the Supreme Court’s ruling. However, the outcomes have varied widely, which highlights ambiguities in the law. “The same actions might be considered a criminal offense in Orenburg but only a misdemeanor in Kursk. The legislation is so vague that it’s impossible to define the limits of what’s acceptable,” Smirnov explained.
Beyond raids, the authorities have opened an increasing number of cases against individuals. Charges have been brought for private gatherings, photographs featuring rainbow imagery, and even outdated social media posts. One young man was penalized for attending a house party wearing lipstick, while another case involved a 14-year-old video of a birthday celebration where a woman kissed the guest of honor on the lips.
Rainbow flags, now classified as extremist symbols, have become a particularly frequent target. According to the SOVA Center, which monitors extremism and hate crimes in Russia, at least 36 cases involving rainbow imagery have been opened in the past year. Law enforcement agencies use specialized software to search the internet for these symbols, automatically flagging posts for prosecution. This broad enforcement has led to unusual cases, such as a Protestant pastor being fined for a six-year-old post that paired biblical quotes condemning homosexuality with a rainbow graphic. Authorities deemed the combination “LGBT propaganda” and issued a fine for displaying extremist symbols.
The elastic and sweeping interpretation of “extremist symbols” raises concerns about future crackdowns. Smirnov warned that this precedent mirrors the handling of cases against Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, where law enforcement officers began interpreting for themselves what qualified as extremist symbols, including something as simple as the letter “N.” “It’s not hard to imagine something similar happening here,” he said.
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