Russia deems LGBTQ bar managers 'terrorists and extremists' ahead of trial

Russian authorities have designated two managers of an LGBTQ bar "terrorists and extremists" after their arrest, in the first criminal case of its kind since a new crackdown on sexual minorities, according to a notice seen by AFP on Saturday.

Russia's supreme court banned in November a so-called "international LGBT movement" for "extremism", which was the basis for detaining the Pose bar's administrator Diana Kamilianova, 28 ans, and artistic director Alexandre Klimov, 21, in Orenburg, southwest Russia, earlier this month.

They face up to 10 years in prison on charges of "extremism" and "promoting non-traditional sexual relations among the visitors of the bar", and the Orenburg tribunal has said they will remain in custody until May 18.

Law enforcement had raided the bar on March 9, and videos of humiliating detentions of some of the club visitors circulated online.

The arrests come amid an ultra-conservative turn that has accelerated since the Kremlin launched its Ukraine offensive, casting the conflict as a battle against the West and its liberal values.

In December 2022, Putin widened the 2013 law banning the promotion of "non-traditional" relationships to children, to criminalise any positive public mention of LGBTQ people or relationships.