‘What even is propaganda?’ How Russia’s murky anti-LGBTQ laws fuel a repressive campaign that makes the state millions
The Russian Supreme Court’s designation of the non-existent “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organization in 2023 marked the latest legal escalation in the Kremlin’s increasingly repressive campaign against LGBTQ+ people. Over the past decade, the number of cases opened under Russia’s notorious “LGBT propaganda” laws has grown eighteenfold. And in the past two years alone, fines issued under these statutes have brought more than 60 million rubles ($765,300) into the state’s coffers. Meduza takes a closer look at how this legislation evolved and what it means for queer people living under it.
LGBTQ+ repressions, in numbers
Until 2022, Russia’s so-called “LGBT propaganda” law was rarely enforced, says Katya Dikovskaya, the head of the legal assistance program at the Sphere Foundation. When it was, the authorities mostly targeted people who openly opposed it.
The first misdemeanor fines for violating the law (Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) was issued in December 2013, when Astrakhan activists Nikolai Alexeyev and Yaroslav Yevtushenko were found guilty of “LGBT propaganda” for staging solo pickets with a sign that read: “Gay propaganda doesn’t exist. People don’t become gay — they’re born gay.”
Russia’s laws against ‘LGBT propaganda’
In 2013, Russia adopted a law banning the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors, adding Article 6.21 to the Administrative Code.
In December 2022, the authorities expanded the law to prohibit disseminating “gay propaganda” among people of all ages. Article 6.21 was broadened and renamed, and the code was amended to include bans on the “promoting pedophilia” and spreading information that could “cause minors to want to change their gender” (Articles 6.21¹ and 6.21²).
In the fall of 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the non-existent “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organization,” outlawing it in the country.
After the “gay propaganda” law was expanded in 2022, the number of cases surged, Dikovskaya says.
According to data from the Russian Supreme Court’s Judicial Department, in 2024, Russian courts adjudicated 221 misdemeanor cases under provisions banning “non-traditional sexual relations,” “gender reassignment,” “promoting pedophilia,” and the dissemination of information that could “cause minors to want to change their gender.” In 2023, courts ruled on 186 such cases. For comparison, only 12 cases were adjudicated under Article 6.21 in both 2014 and 2015.
Previously, the “gay propaganda” law imposed fines of up to 100,000 rubles ($1,270) for individuals and up to 1 million rubles ($12,700) for legal entities, along with the potential suspension of a company’s operations or the deportation of foreign nationals found in violation.
These penalties were toughened in 2022, with the fine for “promoting non-traditional relationships or gender reassignment” rising to 400,000 rubles ($5,000) for individuals. “Gay propaganda” allegedly targeting minors or involving the use of media or the Internet became punishable by a fine of up to 800,000 rubles — a record penalty for individuals under the Administrative Code. For legal entities, the fine came to range from 800,000 to 10 million rubles ($10,200 to $127,400).
In 2024, Russian courts imposed 146 fines under articles related to “gay propaganda,” totaling more than 37 million rubles ($471,400), according to the Judicial Department’s records. The year before, courts issued 101 fines amounting to nearly 26 million rubles ($331,200).
Most penalties for “LGBT propaganda” target individuals. In 2024, for example, 108 individuals, 18 legal entities, and 25 officials were found guilty under the law. “It affects ordinary people who may have no connection to activism and may not even identify as LGBTQ+,” Dikovskaya says. “They might simply care enough to speak out or repost something in support.”
In addition to the 146 fines issued in 2024, Russian courts ordered five administrative arrests and deported four people, all of whom were foreign nationals or stateless individuals.
Cracking down online
Most “LGBT propaganda” cases stem from online content, according to Dikovskaya and a lawyer from the Russian LGBTQ+ rights group Vykhod (“Coming Out”), who requested anonymity. “It can involve any materials containing visual depictions of non-heterosexual relationships — videos, films, photographs,” the Vykhod lawyer explains. “It can also include any text related to LGBTQ+ topics that touch on social or political issues.”
“In rare cases, homosexual or transgender people have faced misdemeanor charges for dating profiles,” the lawyer adds. “Sometimes it’s the profile itself that triggers a case, but more often, it’s the follow-up communication with someone who responds.”
It’s not just recent posts that can lead to charges — even content published before the adoption of Russia’s expanded “gay propaganda” ban can be grounds for a case. These violations are treated as ongoing. “If a person takes no action to remove [the material] after the law goes into effect, they can still be held liable,” Dikovskaya explains.
“The concept of an ongoing misdemeanor offense is not, in itself, some construct designed specifically for politically motivated persecution,” says the lawyer from Vykhod. “It’s intended to prevent someone from being repeatedly charged for the same act, if that act continues over a long period of time. What appears to be retroactive enforcement is just the flip side of that concept.”
Despite the significant number of cases targeting individuals, Vykhod often encounters instances in which organizations — such as streaming platforms — are prosecuted for “gay propaganda,” the lawyer says. A 2024 joint report by Sphere and the St. Petersburg–based human rights organization Citizens’ Watch categorized cases involving “gay propaganda” in films and videos as a separate, sizable group.
One high-profile example is the Russian streaming platform Kinopoisk. Last fall, a Moscow court fined Kinopoisk 7 million rubles ($89,200), ruling that the film Love by Gaspar Noé, available on the platform, constituted “propaganda of pedophilia.” The court also handed the company an additional 3-million-ruble ($38,200) fine for “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships.” In total, Kinopoisk faced six charges in 2024. Three additional fines were issued to the company’s head of video content, and one to its general director.
The Vykhod lawyer suggests that most of these “gay propaganda” cases originate online because “offline activity is harder for law enforcement to detect.” “They sit and monitor social media,” Dikovskaya explains.
According to the Vykhod lawyer, prosecutions are sometimes prompted by tips or complaints. According to Sphere and Citizens’ Watch’s joint report, between December 2022 and March 2024, the Interior Ministry opened at least seven cases based on reports from the Russian censorship lobbying group Safe Internet League, the Veterans of Russia organization, and members of the State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology, and Communications.
The million-dollar question
Even as the number of cases continues to grow, it’s not clear what the law actually deems an offense. “The language in the law is incredibly vague,” Dikovskaya says. “It doesn’t specifically define what constitutes propaganda. Which means it can be absolutely anything.”
“Expert” analyses — such as linguistic examinations conducted as part of misdemeanor cases — do little to clarify the law’s meaning. “Here’s how it works: investigators bring in experts to justify how they’re applying [the law],” says Dikovskaya. “I don’t want to accuse everyone, but investigators have their own experts who write what [the prosecutors] want to see.”
According to Dikovskaya, Russian courts tend to give more weight to these official findings than to those conducted independently at the defense’s request. But in many cases, no expert analysis is conducted at all, the lawyer from Vykhod says. The initial decision about whether something constitutes “gay propaganda” is made by police and the final decision is left to the judge. “There’s no requirement in the law or in court practice to bring in a specialist,” the lawyer says. “‘What even is propaganda?’ is the million-dollar question.”
The lack of clear wording in the law leads to confusion. For example, the distinction between “promoting non-traditional sexual relationships” and merely “displaying” them remains unclear. According to Dikovskaya, enforcement also varies across Russia’s regions. For example, a person holding a solo protest in support of LGBTQ+ rights might be charged under laws banning unauthorized public demonstrations, or under those prohibiting “gay propaganda.”
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The Russian government’s November 2023 designation of the non-existent “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” further complicates the situation. “There’s a consistent pattern of people being charged for displaying ‘LGBT symbols’ under both the ‘propaganda’ law and Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code, which concerns ‘extremist symbols,’” the Vykhod lawyer says.
As the lawyer puts it, where “propaganda” ends and “extremism” begins can be “very difficult” to understand. Dikovskaya believes the distinction is “completely lost” on Russian investigators, prosecutors, judges, and even experts. “It used to be that when a case went to court and prosecutors requested an expert review, the conclusion would be: Yes, this is propaganda,” Dikovskaya recalls. “Now, the content of the review is identical — but the conclusion is ‘extremism.’”
Unlike “LGBT propaganda,” which falls under administrative law, “extremism” can carry criminal penalties under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code — which allows for a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. The first criminal case for allegedly organizing an “extremist LGBT community” was opened in March 2024, when the authorities arrested Vyacheslav Khasanov, the owner of the Pose nightclub in Orenburg. Two of his employees, Alexander Klimov and Diana Kamilyanova, were placed under house arrest. All three were added to Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Russian law enforcement have also laid charges for “organizing an extremist group” in the so-called Publishing House Case. According to the Investigative Committee, current and former staff of Russia’s largest publishing house, Eksmo, “out of selfish motives, published and sold books that promote the activities of the LGBT movement, which has been designated an extremist organization in Russia.”
Criminal cases involving “LGBT extremism” tend to follow a similar pattern, says the lawyer from Vykhod. In most cases, “gay propaganda” allegations go hand in hand with organizing events for queer communities. “Criminal cases are also being opened against LGBTQ+ activists — and in those cases, merely engaging in public advocacy for nondiscrimination against LGBTQ+ people is treated as a criminal act,” the lawyer says.
At the same time, the lawyer notes that not all cases fit this mold: “It’s unclear what criteria law enforcement uses to decide why some people face misdemeanor charges for a given action, while others face criminal prosecution for doing the exact same thing.”
One more consequence of the law banning the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” is that it’s made it even harder for queer people in Russia to seek legal protection. “If an LGBTQ+ person goes to the police as a victim, it’s not uncommon for the perpetrator to file a counter-complaint, claiming that the victim engaged in ‘propaganda’ — sometimes simply by existing — or even participated in extremist activity,” says the Vykhod lawyer. “These counterclaims are sometimes taken just as seriously, if not more so, than the original complaint.”
Reporting by Kristina Safonova