Number One restaurant and nightclub, Yakutsk, Russia. Photo: SakhaDay
Police in the city of Yakutsk in the Russian Far East have detained staff at a local restaurant and nightclub following an official complaint made by the mayor’s office, local news outlet SakhaDay reported on Thursday.
The Yakutsk city administration accused Number One, a Chinese restaurant and nightclub, of having disseminated “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and gender reassignment” for hosting performances by “transgender women and men of non-traditional orientation from Thailand” since 26 December, and confirmed that it had sent reports of civil violations to both the regional Prosecutor’s Office and the police.
The head of the administration, Felix Antonov, said he had personally visited the club with the police, who detained the entire staff and took them to the police station “to find out further details”.
However, as none of the “artists from Thailand” was at the establishment at the time of the raid, the police were continuing to look for them, SakhaDay reported.
According to the Sibirsky Express Telegram channel, Number One belongs to Yakutia-based entrepreneur Qinglu Zhu, who was charged with insubordination to a police officer in 2024, for which he was fined 2,000 rubles (€17).
Since the Russian Supreme Court declared the non-existent “international LGBT movement” to be “extremist” in November 2023, all LGBT activity has been effectively banned in Russia and law enforcement has regularly raided queer-friendly nightclubs across the country.
The first criminal case for “LGBT extremism” was opened against the organisers of events at the bar Pose in the city of Orenburg in the Urals in March 2024.
