Russian police raided several Moscow nightclubs and arrested a travel agency director early Saturday in an enforcement sweep targeting alleged “LGBT propaganda,” one year after the Supreme Court banned the “international LGBT movement,” state media reported.
Security forces targeted at least three venues overnight, including the Arma nightclub, where social media videos showed riot police ordering club-goers to sit on the dance floor. At the Mono gay club in central Moscow, footage captured patrons being led out with hands above their heads toward waiting police vans.
The interior ministry reported raiding another club on Skladochnaya Street, identified by Interfax news agency as Inferno Night, for allegedly “propagandizing the ideology of the banned LGBT movement” and illegal alcohol sales.
Authorities also arrested the 48-year-old director of “Men Travel” agency for allegedly “preparing a trip for supporters of non-traditional sexual values to go to Egypt for the New Year holidays,” according to state-run TASS news agency.
The crackdown comes amid what rights groups describe as an unprecedented campaign against LGBTQ+ people in Russia, where authorities have arrested LGBTQ+ bar owners and prosecuted those promoting LGBTQ+ rights. The Kremlin has intensified conservative rhetoric since launching its Ukraine offensive nearly three years ago, framing the conflict as a struggle against Western values.
