An LGBT+ centre in Russia has been raided for reportedly ‘conflating’ rules on ‘gay propaganda’.

Officers arrived at Rakurs, a community centre based in Arkhangelsk, on March 28 and demanded to inspect the premises, Gay Star News reports.

They then carried out a search of the centre, withdrawing materials and preventing volunteers, lawyers and five visitors from leaving the publication states.

Police carried out a search of the centre

It is thought the inspection was sparked after an alleged ‘complaint’ against the centre.


The organisation could now be banned for ‘conflating rules on gay propaganda’, Gay Star News indicates.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin passed the law, which bans ‘information promoting the denial of traditional family values’ and ‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations’, in 2013.



The government’s stated purpose for the law is to protect children from being exposed homosexuality being presented as a norm in society.

Activists in the country say its introduction has led to an increase of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic attacks.

The organisation could now be banned for ‘conflating rules on gay propaganda’ (Picture: AFP)

While a Human Rights Watch report found that it was stifling access to LGBT-inclusive education and support services, causing more young people to suffer as a result.

Kyle Knight, a researcher at HRW, said this meant the ‘blatantly discriminatory’ law had the ‘complete opposite effect of what the proponents of the law suggested it would have’.

In January, it was reported that two people had been killed and nearly 40 detained in a new crackdown on LGBT people in Russia’s Chechnya region.

The deaths were said to be caused by the use of torture by police.

Head of Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov denied the purge took place but also told one interviewer that gay people in Chechnya should be removed ‘to cleanse our blood’.

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