Putin’s Russia: first arrests under new anti-LGBT laws mark new era of repression

By Sergey Katsuba, University College Dublin

Just over three decades after Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, three people have been arrested and charged under the country’s harsh new anti-LGBT laws and could face ten years in prison for membership of an “extremist organisation”.

The arrests are a clear indication of how Russia has come full circle on its persecution of sexual minorities under Vladimir Putin.

On March 21, the district court of Orenburg city in south-western Russia ordered the arrest of nightclub owner Vyacheslav Khasanov. The nightclub, which is called Pose, has never explicitly identified as a gay club – styling itself as a “parody theatre bar”, it hosted parties with drag queen artists and go-go dancers as entertainment.

In a press release announcing the arrest, the court said that as the owner of the club, Khasanov organised participation in an extremist organisation, “acting as the leader of an organised group of persons by prior conspiracy”. The specific actions included organising the work of such premises, and publishing photos and videos from performances “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships and preferences”. Khasanov was arrested at the airport when trying to flee the country.

His arrest followed the arrest and detention of two of his employees. The club’s art director, Alexander Klimov, and administrator Diana Kamelyanova were arrested and sentenced to two-months pre-trial detention for, the Orenburg court said, “promoting non-traditional sexual relations among the visitors of the bar”.

These three people are the first victims of the new repressive legal norm. At the end of November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that the “international LGBT movement” is an “extremist organisation”. That decision effectively criminalised homosexuality, 30 years after it was decriminalised in 1993.

But now it isn’t sexual activity that is outlawed, it’s the identity itself. If you openly identify as queer you are a part of an extremist organisation and subject to prosecution.

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