Moscow safety forces carried out raids on homosexual nightclubs, bars and saunas within the metropolis heart on Friday evening, in keeping with media studies, a day after Russia’s Supreme Court docket successfully banned the worldwide LGBTQ+ motion in Russia, labeling it an “extremist” group.
Police searched venues throughout the Russian capital, together with a nightclub, a male sauna, and a bar that hosted LGBTQ+ events, below the pretext of a drug raid, native media reported. Eyewitnesses stated clubgoers’ paperwork have been checked and photographed by the safety providers.
Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram information channel reported that, on the pretext of looking for medicine, police raided a membership on Malaya Yakimanka the place a celebration for the LGBT group was going down.
“In the midst of the get together, they stopped the music and [the police] began to go into the halls,” in keeping with the report. ”On the exit, they took passport pictures with out authorization to take action,” Ostorozhno Novosti wrote, citing an eyewitness.
On Friday, the European Union issued a assertion during which it strongly condemned the choice of the Russian Supreme Court docket to outlaw the worldwide LGBT public motion.
“Amid the decades-long crackdown on rights of LGBTIQ individuals unleashed below President Putin, this choice goals at additional persecuting the LGBTIQ group in Russia and goals to stifle civil society and people courageously defending human rights,” in keeping with the assertion.