St. Petersburg court declares Russian LGBT Network an ‘extremist organization,’ bans it from operating in Russia
A St. Petersburg court has declared the Russian LGBT Network an “extremist organization” and banned it from operating in Russia, the Joint Press Service of St. Petersburg Courts announced.
The Justice Ministry filed the lawsuit. The hearing was closed to the press and public.
In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the nonexistent “International LGBT Movement” an “extremist organization” and banned it from operating in the country.
As the Telegram channel 7×7 noted, the ruling is the sixth against an LGBTQ+ initiative in Russia in the past several weeks. Russian authorities had previously designated as extremist organizations the Samara queer organization Irida, the Russian LGBTQ+ rights group Coming Out, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center in Yekaterinburg, the media outlet Parni+ (“Guys+”), and the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives.
In 2021, the Justice Ministry designated the Russian LGBT Network and its co-founder Igor Kochetkov as foreign agents.
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