Russia has added the so-called “LGBT movement” to a list of extremist and terrorist organizations, state media said on Friday.

The move is in line with a Russian Supreme Court ruling in November that LGBT activists should be designated as extremists, a move that gay and transgender representatives said they feared would lead to arrests and prosecutions.

The list is maintained by an agency called Rosfinmonitoring, which has the power to freeze the bank accounts of more than 14,000 individuals and entities designated as extremists and terrorists. They range from al Qaeda to US tech giant Meta to associates of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Official news agency RIA Novosti said the new listing referred to “international LGBT social movements and their structural units.”

Russia has tightened restrictions on expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity over the past decade as part of President Vladimir Putin’s shift toward family values ​​that he portrays as contrasting with decadent attitudes in the West.

Among other measures, it passed laws banning the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations and banning gender change through legal or medical means.

Published on:

March 22, 2024

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