Russian LGBT Network

• 1. Founding And Structure

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  The Russian LGBT Network emerged in 2006 as a small initiative to rally public support for the elimination of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. By the 19th of October 2008, it reformed into the first inter-regional LGBT rights organization in Russia, creating a nationwide structure with fourteen regional branches. These branches spanned cities from Saint Petersburg to Crimea, including Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Arkhangelsk, Volgograd, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Perm, Samara, Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo, and Novosibirsk. Two offices in Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk closed at the beginning of 2010 due to pressure and resource constraints. The network was governed by an annual conference that elected both a council and a chairperson. Between conferences, the council managed operations under the leadership of figures like Igor Kochetkov, who became the first Chairperson in 2008. The organization also supported eleven affiliated groups such as Exit LGBT Organization in St. Petersburg and Rainbow House in Tyumen. This decentralized model allowed activists across diverse regions to coordinate efforts while maintaining local autonomy.

• 2. Activism And Public Events

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  In March 2009, the network sponsored the third Week Against Homophobia in Russia, holding roundtables, films, demonstrations, and performances in twelve cities including Arkhangelsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Novosibirsk, Petrozavodsk, Tyumen, Rostov-na-Donu, Chelyabinsk, and Saint Petersburg. On the 17th of May 2009, they organized a rainbow flash mob in Saint Petersburg that brought together between one hundred and two hundred fifty people, marking what organizers considered the largest demonstration for LGBT rights in Russian history at that time. Smaller demonstrations followed in more than thirty other Russian cities. In August 2009, a brochure about gay and lesbian family rights was published, examining legal problems faced by same-sex families in contemporary Russia. That same month, the network sent written requests to the Prosecutor General of Russia against individuals like environmentalist Oleg Mitvol and newspaper deputy chief editor Sergey Ponomarev for making defamatory statements about sexual orientation. By September 2009, an International Festival of Queer Culture took place in Saint Petersburg featuring poets Dita Karelina, Liya Kirgetova, and Elena Novozhilova alongside singers Olga Krauze and Tatiana Puchko. The festival included photo exhibitions, theater performances, poetry readings, art workshops, films, drag-king shows, seminars, and discussions. In 2014 alone, activists organized one hundred sixty-five events devoted to informing the public about issues facing lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people across Russia.

• 3. Documenting Violence And Discrimination

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  Starting from 2007, the Russian LGBT Network conducted annual anonymous surveys on human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, with participation ranging from one thousand to three thousand respondents each year. In 2014, the survey involved 1,092 participants and revealed that nearly half faced psychological violence while 47 percent experienced it directly. Fifteen percent encountered physical violence, and 21 percent had their personal data protection violated. Thirty-seven percent reported difficulties with employment or employers due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only seven percent stated willingness to report such violations to police. In 2015, the network documented two hundred eighty-four reported cases of violence and discrimination against LGBT people in Russia. These included fifty-two instances of physical violence, twenty-one abuses by law enforcement agencies, twenty-two labor law violations, twenty cases involving transgender individuals, twenty-six violations of freedom of assembly, and nine cases of family violence or parental right violations. Monitoring teams recorded these incidents in nine cities, processing reports submitted via legal aid services and the organization's website. One case in Omsk exemplified illegal dismissals following an individual coming out to employers. Another case involved a gang extorting five hundred thousand rubles from a single victim in January 2016 through threats including hitting him on the head and leg, threatening to stick a sewing needle into his eye, and forcing him to undress for photographs.

• 4. The Chechnya Purge Response

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  In March 2017, the Russian LGBT Network began receiving information about mass detentions, torture, and killings of homosexual men in Chechnya. On March 29, they opened an email hotline to receive reports from victims and witnesses. By April 1, Novaya Gazeta published an article reporting over one hundred illegally detained and at least three murdered gay men in Chechnya. Journalists cited sources ranging from LGBT activists to unofficial contacts within local UFSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutor's office, and republic administration. Elena Milashina, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, stated that death tolls could exceed fifty people. The first wave of illegal detentions started in early February when police arrested an intoxicated young man and found intimate materials and contacts of local homosexuals on his phone. A second wave followed after GayRussia.ru project activists applied for a gay parade in several regions including Nalchik, Cherkessk, Stavropol, and Maykop. Since April 2017, the network evacuated around one hundred fifty people out of Chechnya, with most settling outside Russia. These evacuations targeted individuals threatened by ongoing anti-gay purges. In November 2019, seven unidentified assailants broke into the apartment of a volunteer in Saint Petersburg who was not publicly identified. They threatened physical violence and murder while aggressively interrogating him about a young Chechen woman who had escaped from the region and David Isteev, the emergency programme coordinator. Three attackers were identified as Chechens and four implied they were police officers from Grozny but refused to provide identification documents.

• 5. Legal Persecution And Liquidation

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  In October 2021, the Russian LGBT Network was designated as an unregistered public organization performing functions of a foreign agent. An attack campaign against the organization unfolded across multiple Russian media outlets throughout November. By February 2022, the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking liquidation of Sphere Charitable Foundation, the parent organization of the Russian LGBT Network. The ministry argued that operations and activism contradicted traditional values and state policy, posing threats to public order and rule of law. Igor Kochetkov criticized the suit as ideologically motivated rather than legally grounded. On the 26th of April 2022, a St. Petersburg court ordered the liquidation of Sphere, ruling that the organization illegally conducted foreign-backed political activity. This decision effectively dissolved the network's legal existence after sixteen years of operation. Prior to this, the network had faced increasing pressure including court orders blocking websites like Children 404 in Barnaul on the 14th of April 2016. That project provided support and psychological assistance to LGBT adolescents since its creation in spring 2013. Despite appeals by founder Elena Klimova urging readers to bypass locks, prosecutors demanded continued blocking of related social media groups. Maria Kozlovskaya, senior lawyer for the network, noted apparent premeditation in such decisions where expert opinions held no weight.