The Russian Supreme Court on Thursday declared that the LGBT movement is extremist and banned its activities within the country’s borders.
In a statement, the court said it had decided to “satisfy the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice on the recognition of the LGBT movement as extremist and to ban its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.” It added that the decision would come into effect immediately.
The hearing was held behind closed doors and it took the court some four hours to study the evidence presented by the Justice Ministry, including classified documents.
No representatives defending the movement appeared during the hearing.
The Justice Ministry filed its request on Nov. 17 for the top court to ban the movement’s activities and recognize it as “extremist.”
It said various signs and manifestations of extremist orientation had been revealed in its activities, including the incitement of social and religious discord.
Moscow’s crackdown against liberal-leaning groups has intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which has seen the LBGTQ community in the country face increasing curtailment of their rights.
The Kremlin has since ramped up its rhetoric about protecting “traditional values” from what it called the West’s “degrading” influence.
Dvorkin said he believed LGBTQ people were being used as scapegoats by Russian authorities.
“They’re losing the war. This makes people very frustrated and dissatisfied with the government. It’s very easy to take that anger out on LGBTQ people.”
In July, lawmakers banned medical intervention and administrative procedures outlawing gender reassignment.
Lawmaker Pyotr Tolstoy said at the time that the measure was about “erecting a barrier to the penetration of Western anti-family ideology”.
Last November, lawmakers also approved a bill banning all forms of LGBTQ “propaganda”, a move with far-reaching consequences for book publishing and film distribution.
Out of 49 European countries, the Rainbow Europe organisation ranked Russia third from bottom in terms of tolerance of LGBTQ people.
