On November 17 the Russian Ministry of Justice filed an application with the Supreme Court to ban the international LGBT movement, alleging it promotes social hatred and harms interreligious relations. From that moment, authorities moved toward blocking any activities associated with the movement, as a judicial decision approved the measure and signaled a broader crackdown in the months ahead.
Judicial sources note that full enforcement of the ban is unlikely to happen immediately. There is no expectation that this step will be fully in place before January 2024, leaving questions about when gay rights groups or NGOs might appear on a list of extremist organizations alongside religious sects, hooligan movements, and other entities. The Supreme Court’s decision rested on provisions within the law aimed at countering extremist activity, which the court used to justify the ban.
According to officials, the Ministry of Justice initiated the administrative lawsuit to have the international LGBT movement declared extremist and its activities prohibited within Russian territory. The statement, posted on the ministry’s site, underscored the government’s aim to curb what it described as harmful propagandistic activity.
For many LGBT individuals, the climate in Russia has long been difficult, and the latest move intensifies concerns about personal expression. A person using the pseudonym Yuri described a recent decline in the space for open self-expression and warned that restrictions could deepen. He suggested that restrictions already present in some regions feel reminiscent of past repressive practices and fears that similar measures might spread to more areas.
Urban centers such as Moscow and St. Petersburg were proposed as possible safe havens where LGBT residents might seek greater freedom, compared with more conservative regions. The public debate around these steps mirrors earlier policy shifts, including measures aimed at restricting LGBT content, which began in 2013 with propaganda prohibitions and expanded to a broader population in 2022. More recent actions, including limitations on gender reassignment, were introduced in 2023, forming part of ongoing governance initiatives related to family and social norms.
More pressure on foreigners
In parallel, attention has turned to foreign nationals living in Russia. A proposal circulated in the Duma suggested that foreigners wishing to enter Russia should sign a pledge of allegiance to avoid actions deemed harmful to Russian state policy. The draft seeks to prevent situations described as abuses of freedom of expression, distortions of historical truth, and attacks on traditional Russian moral values.
Among those who have naturalized in Russia, particularly individuals with roots in Central Asia and the Caucasus, there are reports of pressure related to military service in Ukraine and concerns about the status of passports for family members. Discrimination in housing has also been reported, with listings sometimes specifying preference for certain ethnic groups or language capabilities. Even holders of Russian passports or natives with distant roots in the Caucasus or Siberia may encounter bias in housing markets when language or ethnicity becomes a factor.