Russia registers 13-year-old boy as juvenile offender over ‘LGBT propaganda’ charges

A 13-year-old schoolboy in Russia has been registered as a juvenile offender after police filed charges against him for “LGBT propaganda” and “displaying extremist symbols”, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Friday.

The boy, whose details have been withheld to protect his identity, allegedly showed an online video containing a symbol designated as “extremist” to classmates whose parents subsequently raised a complaint with the police.

The range of symbols legally considered “extremist” in Russia is extremely broad, and can include any depiction of the rainbow pride flag, considered a symbol of the fictitious “international LGBT movement” banned in Russia since November 2023.

Under Russian law, responsibility for administrative offences can only be held by people aged 16 years or older. As such, the police transferred the case to a regional Juvenile Affairs Commission, who have now suggested the boy be transferred to a special education institute.

A lawyer representing the schoolboy told Mediazona that “he wasn’t trying to spread propaganda [because] he doesn’t even know what that is.” Calling the boy’s actions “a joke for the sake of a joke”, she said that the Russian legal system had “sped off” with its investigation.

“The internet is something that’s accessible to everyone … Even children can go online, come across [these kinds of videos], and show them to someone else. And the authorities consider this a form of propaganda,” she added.

The lawyer has filed an appeal against the Juvenile Affairs Commission’s recommendation, arguing that it is unnecessary to send the boy, who had received excellent grades and won regional creative competitions, to a boarding school where young offenders are “treated by psychologists”.

Russia first outlawed “LGBT propaganda” in 2013, ostensibly with the aim of protecting children from depictions of “non-traditional family relations”. Since then, the scope of Russia’s anti-LGBT laws has increased substantially, with the government extending the ban to cover all ages in 2022.

The Russian authorities regularly prosecute people for alleged LGBT propaganda, or for displaying symbols linked to the “international LGBT movement”, imposing penalties ranging from small fines to prison sentences.

In just the past month, Russian courts have ordered the deportation of a foreign national over a review of a leather skirt he left on an online marketplace, and sentenced a photographer to 18 months of compulsory labour for publishing gay fanfiction online.