Photo: Ural56.ru
The manager and the artistic director of Pose, a gay club in the Russian Urals city of Orenburg, have been added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” compiled by Russia’s financial monitoring service.
Diana Kamilyanova and Alexander Klimov, who stand accused of “organising activities for an extremist organisation”, are believed to be the first members of Russia’s LGBT community prosecuted since the “international LGBT movement” was deemed “extremist” by the country’s Supreme Court last year. Both were remanded in custody on 20 March for two months.
Kamilyanova and Klimov were reportedly added to the list of “terrorists and extremists” on 28 March, alongside four suspects in the Moscow concert hall terror attack, a Telegram channel monitoring the changes to the list wrote on Friday.
Before their arrest, police raided the club multiple times, seizing “bags with female clothes and wigs”. The raids were prompted by accusations of “LGBT extremism” made by local far-right activists.
The crackdown on LGBT groups in Russia has left queer people in Russia in an increasingly dangerous position, with people arrested for sharing LGBT symbols and queer venues raided and forced to close.
