Two Russian women kissing on video charged with ‘LGBT propaganda’

Two women from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar have been charged with disseminating “LGBT propaganda” and ordered to issue an apology video for posting a reel on Instagram in which they kiss.

The video, which was posted on Sunday and then quickly deleted, shows blogger Vladlina Alchaeva humorously proposing to a second woman at a restaurant, after which they kiss as a waiter brings out a cake. 

Each of the women is facing a 100,000-ruble fine (€1,000), while Alchaeva is looking at an additional penalty of up to 200,000 rubles for posting the video online.

Local police posted the apology video on their Telegram channel on Tuesday, in which the women, with their faces blurred, promise “it won’t happen again”. 

“I apologise to everyone who thinks we’re pro-LGBT,” one of the women says in the apology video. “We know the laws of our country.” 

Alchaeva later told Kremlin-backed propaganda channel RT that she shot the video to get famous, adding that she “loves men and Russia”.

Russia passed a law that banned the showing of “LGBT propaganda” to minors in 2013, a ban that was extended to adults in 2022 and amended to include “propaganda of all non-traditional relationships” as well as “changing gender and paedophilia”. 

In November, Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed what it called “the international LGBT movement”, which effectively makes it possible for any visible member of the queer community to be prosecuted for extremism.