Russian court fines local news outlet 1 million rubles over article on swinger parties

A Russian court has fined a local news outlet one million rubles (€11,300) for publishing an article about swinger parties, independent outlet 7x7 reported on Monday.

A court in the southwestern city of Samara found the companies behind the local news site 63.ru guilty under Russia's "LGBT propaganda" law. The case centers on a February 2026 piece headlined "There's no turning back from debauchery: how swinger parties in Russia work — we learned everything, even the prices". Media regulator Roskomnadzor flagged the article as promoting "non-traditional sexual relations”.

Prosecutors argued that the concept of partner swapping runs counter to "marital fidelity" and the "stability and exclusivity" of the family unit, and that the article was designed to cast such relationships in a favorable light.

Russia expanded its ban on so-called "LGBT propaganda" in November 2022, broadening a law that had previously only restricted the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relationships" to minors. Since then, it has been applied to a wide array of targets — including people prosecuted for displaying rainbow flags on social media, and a woman sentenced to jail for wearing rainbow-colored frog earrings.