<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alexander Klimov. Photo: Orenday<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In early spring, the Ministry of Justice added the \u201cinternational LGBT movement\u201d to the list of extremist organisations, allowing criminal cases to be opened against those who, according to security forces, promote \u201cnon-traditional values.\u201d The staff and owner of the Pose<\/em> bar in Orenburg in southwest Russia are implicated in the first such case. The bar had previously been featured in the local press as a place where \u201cthey try to instil a taste for non-traditionalism,\u201d but now the attacks by loyalist media have been replaced with raids by security forces and nationalists, which ended in three arrests. According to human rights activists, this may only be the beginning of mass criminal prosecutions. They told Mediazona<\/em> what the LGBT community now has in common with FBK,<\/em> Alexei Navalny\u2019s Anti-Corruption Foundation,<\/em> AUE, the vaguely defined Russian criminals\u2019 subculture, and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u0427\u0438\u0442\u0430\u0442\u044c \u043d\u0430 \u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u043c<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Vyacheslav Khasanov opened the first Pose<\/em> bar in Ufa, Bashkortostan, in mid-2020, and a second one under the same name appeared in Orenburg a year later. Both were positioned not as gay clubs, but as establishments with theatrical drag shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the increasingly conservative backdrop, the clubs managed to operate relatively unbothered for some time\u2014even after the full-scale war in Ukraine began. If the security forces showed any interest in them, it was only in a general manner: checking alcohol licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, local conservatives were unhappy from the very beginning. Six months after\u00a0Pose<\/em>\u00a0opened in Ufa,\u00a0bash.news<\/em>, a publication launched by the local government,\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0a complaint from \u201cconcerned citizens of the city, worried about an underground nightclub\u201d and its \u201cLGBT thematics.\u201d The matter went no further at the time, but in September 2023, one of the residents living near the Ufa club was enraged by the queue at the bar: as its patrons recall, a lot of people came to a concert by the extravagant diva Albina Sexova. Photos of this queue were shared by local online communities, with mentions of complaints addressed to the head of the republic, Radiy Khabirov, a former Kremlin political operator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local media published<\/a> articles with headlines like \u201cUfa residents outraged by queue of gays and transvestites at nightclub\u201d and quoted one of the complaints: \u201cWe bought flats in a business-class building, hoping for peace and development, but we have to live in fear that our child will see this nightmare. Every weekend night we can\u2019t sleep, but watch and listen in horror to what\u2019s going on, constant fights, shouting, drunken conversations, jumping on our cars and damaging our property. Since when are these outrages allowed in Russia?\u201d In November, the club had to close, according to our information\u2014due to threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The establishment in Orenburg also predictably outraged the conservative public. Orenburg media shared this discontent. Back in the summer of 2022, reporters from the local publication Orenday<\/em> went<\/a> to the establishment incognito and wrote a critical report\u2014emphasising, for example, that the address of the establishment was not listed online and had to be obtained by contacting staff via messenging app. \u201cAn hour later, people started showing up, which made us uncomfortable with their profligateness and weirdness. Of course, we didn\u2019t check IDs, but some didn\u2019t look older than sixteen,\u201d the journalists described their impressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until March 1, 2024, despite increased raids by security forces, closed events did not violate Russian law. But in early spring, the Ministry of Justice added the (non-existent) \u201cinternational LGBT movement\u201d to the list of extremist organisations. Human rights activists immediately began to say that criminal cases would follow\u2014and they were right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our sources who frequented Pose<\/em> in Orenburg say that security forces were regularly seen near the club from early March, that is, immediately after the Ministry of Justice updated its list. However, the first time they came, they simply stood nearby all night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A week later, on the night of March 9, a raid started. It was conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the police) and the National Guard (Rosgvardia) together with the Russian Community of Orenburg (ROO)<\/em>\u2014an organisation that had not previously attracted much attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian Community of Orenburg<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our sources from Orenburg cannot recall any other particularly memorable actions by this organisation. Its social media emphasises that it is \u201cnot a sect of nationalists,\u201d but an association advocating \u201cfor a strong Russia and for the prosperity of all indigenous peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe help the front, help Churches, help large families, pregnant women, orphans and the destitute, holds patriotic events for children, organise volunteer clean-ups, plant trees and restore monuments to our ancestors. We learn tactical medicine, self-defence and weapons handling in order to protect the country, family and loved ones in times of need,\u201d the organisation\u2019s description states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The community members proudly report that they conduct joint patrols with Cossacks in Orenburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Pose<\/em> regulars, a few minutes before the raid began, a security guard forcibly took several bracelets from a hostess and gave them to underage young men who were standing at the entrance and whom the staff did not intend to let inside. After that, around 1:30 am, security forces burst into the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ROO was the first to publish a video of the raid on March 9. A man in civilian clothes on stage speaks into a microphone: \u201cA special operation of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is being carried out. No need to provoke anyone.\u201d He then asks \u201cthose under eighteen to come up to the stage on their own, behave well.\u201d The abbreviation FSB is muted in the video, probably because the security service had nothing to do with the raid, and ROO simply decided to use the high-profile name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judging by the video, some people were laid on the floor, while others were spread around the room. One of the eyewitnesses to the incident recalls that the security forces beat patrons and staff with their boots and electric shock devices. The performers were forced to state their personal data and address on camera, and then these videos were posted on local online communities, probably by Interior Ministry employees or members of the Russian Community.<\/em> Later, some of the footage, already posted online, was also published<\/a> by the Orenburg region Interior Ministry, but there the faces of the guests are blurred and ROO is not mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One frequent visitor to the bar told Mediazona<\/em> that he learned from eyewitnesses that guests were taken to a separate room and forced to write statements about \u201cLGBT propaganda,\u201d and those who refused were threatened with electric shocks. According to him, the DJ was beaten right on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three employees, including manager Diana Kamilyanova and art director Alexander Klimov, were released from the police only by midday of the next day, and searches were also conducted at their homes at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the searches, Klimov and Kamilyanova were released, but they were verbally prohibited from leaving Orenburg without an official written document not to leave, one of the club\u2019s regulars tells Mediazona<\/em>. According to him, there was no talk of a criminal case at that time, but a week later, on March 18, several employees were summoned to the investigator, supposedly to return their confiscated phones. They arrived\u2014and ended up being questioned in a criminal case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the evening of March 18, the head of the Safe Internet League, a para-governmental intimidation outfit, Ekaterina Mizulina, announced<\/a> that the first case of organising the activities of an LGBT extremist organisation. Two days later, the Central District Court of Orenburg, in closed sessions, sent<\/a> both Pose<\/em> employees to pre-trial detention. A press release from the court stated<\/a> that the suspects in the case were \u201cpersons with non-traditional sexual orientation\u201d who \u201csupport the views and activities of the international LGBT public association banned in our country, worked at the Pose<\/em> bar, and ensured its functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The manager is accused of recruiting staff, monitoring service quality, approving event programmes, and ensuring the filming of performances \u201cpromoting non-traditional sexual relations.\u201d The art director is said to have \u201cselected drag artists, held meetings with them, and promoted non-traditional sexual relations among bar patrons and on the Telegram<\/em> mobile app.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked about outing of the suspects, a court press officer told Mediazona<\/em> that the press release \u201cdoes not list last names\u201d and that \u201cthis information is taken from the indictment, which means that they gave such testimony when they were interrogated.\u201d Indeed, the court release does not contain last names, but the first and last names of both arrested, along with their photographs, were published<\/a> by local media<\/a>. A week later, Vyacheslav Khasanov was arrested<\/a>. In his case, the court\u2019s press service did not elaborate on what he was allegedly doing, according to the investigation\u2014he was the owner of the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All three arrests took place in closed hearings, and the suspects\u2019 lawyers have so far refused to comment on the case to press. As human rights activists note in conversations with\u00a0Mediazona<\/em>, such caution may be related to the case of participation in an extremist organisation that has been opened against Alexei Navalny\u2019s lawyers, although they were engaged in their usual professional activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many people are at risk of criminal prosecution, according to lawyers from the Net Freedoms<\/em> human rights project who specialise in defending cases of extremism. \u201cAny activism, even if it is only mentioning LGBT, can serve as a basis for persecution. This means not only fundraising, but also organising events, discussions, publishing approving statements on the topic, such that experts or prosecutors see as normalising an LGBT culture that seems abnormal to them,\u201d warns one of the lawyers, who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lawyer from the\u00a0Memorial Human Rights Centre,<\/em>\u00a0who also requested anonymity, agrees with her colleague. She adds that by the time the \u201cLGBT movement\u201d was added to the Ministry of Justice\u2019s list, activists already understood full well that they were under serious threat and therefore stopped their public work. \u201cIt\u2019s much easier to raid a club than a specific person [\u2019s apartment], even if it\u2019s known that he\u2019s an activist and cooperates with someone. It\u2019s easier to catch people in the moment,\u201d she says, discussing why the first such case is specifically related to the\u00a0Pose<\/em>\u00a0bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Net Freedoms<\/em> lawyer believes that the Orenburg case will be a landmark case, but when speculating on how security forces will further persecute for \u201cLGBT extremism,\u201d he suggests paying attention to two groups of cases. First, there are Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, recognised as an extremist organisation in Russia years ago. According to him, this is where security forces have developed the most extensive experience: believers have already been handed more than 450 sentences, with imprisonment in 157 cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, there is AUE, a vaguely criminal subculture that romanticises the prison way of life, which was also recognised as an extremist movement in Russia. The lawyer suggests studying the established practice in AUE cases, where typical charges look like this: \u201cEngaged in the propaganda of the vory<\/em> ideology, organised the collection of the obshchak<\/em>, continued to participate in its activities, expressed adherence to the rules and cultivation of foundations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust take the quotes from indictments and sentences: the investigator substitutes \u2018penitentiary\u2019 with \u2018entertainment\u2019, \u2018criminal\u2019 with \u2018sexual\u2019\u2014and the indictment is done,\u201d is how the Mediazona<\/em> source predicts the content of future criminal cases on \u201cLGBT extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Memorial lawyer draws another parallel\u2014with the repression against Alexei Navalny\u2019s supporters. \u201cFirst there was the persecution of former coordinators of [Anti-Corruption Foundation<\/em> regional offices] who did not leave, then Navalny\u2019s lawyers, and then it spread to those who did not hold such high positions. I think all this will be aimed primarily at getting people who are somehow involved in organising LGBT-related events to stop their activities or leave the country. In principle, this goal is being achieved: a huge number of activists have left,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe bar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The raid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The criminal case<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The outlook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n