Russian activist fined for sharing Buzzfeed and Guardian articles
(Getty)
An LGBT activist in Russia has been fined 50,000 roubles for sharing Buzzfeed and The Guardian articles in Russian court.
A judge in Samara ruled that the articles shared by Evdokiya Romanova were against the country’s homophobic “anti-propaganda laws”.
Fined 50,000 roubles for the offence (£659), Romanova was charged for posting hyperlinks to several news stories about the LGBT rights movement.
As the links were “circulated among minors”, it is believed that a judge returned the case to the police for further investigation this month.
“There’s a good chance that the police will stop their investigation and close the case,” Romanova said at the time.
Since the law came into action, 15 Russians had been fined for spreading “gay propaganda” illegally.
The bill, which was passed 2013, punished citizens who disseminate information aimed at minors “directed at forming nontraditional sexual setup” or which may cause a “distorted understanding” that gay and heterosexual relations are “socially equivalent”, said the official publication of the legislation.
Individual violators face a maximum fine of 100,000 rubles, whereas legal bodies can be fined up to 1 million roubles (£13,000), organizations can have their operations suspended for up to 90 days, and foreign citizens can be fined and deported.
Mr Putin has often denied that the law is homophobic.
“We are talking about protecting children from the respective information,” he said.
“We ask that (other countries) do not interfere in our regulation,” he added.
A similar “anti-propaganda” law is said to be coming into action in Kyrgyzstan.
Once considered to be the most LGBT rights progressive country in central Asia, the country is currently in its second phase of approving an “anti-propaganda” law.
