Russia finds LGBTQ journey agent responsible of extremism after suicide

A Moscow court docket on Friday (November 14, 2025) discovered an LGBTQ journey agent who had killed himself in custody a yr in the past responsible of extremism, as Russia more and more targets people it says undermine “traditional” values.

The posthumous ruling got here a yr after 48-year-old Andrei Kotov was discovered lifeless in his cell in a Moscow pre-trial detention centre.

Russia has closely focused the LGBTQ group underneath President Vladimir Putin, and Friday’s ruling towards someone who had died a yr earlier is seen as a very symbolic instance of how zealous the crackdown is.

Kotov, who ran a journey firm referred to as Men Travel, had mentioned he was crushed by 15 males when he was arrested in November 2024.

The Moscow Golovinsky court docket discovered him responsible of collaborating in “extremist activity” in addition to utilizing underage individuals for pornography, the unbiased Mediazona web site reported from contained in the court docket.

His lawyer had mentioned in December 2024 that Kotov’s physique was present in his cell and that investigators instructed her he died by suicide.

Rights teams have accused authorities of utilizing the case as a present trial, not dropping it after his dying to scare LGBTQ individuals.

In November 2024, Kotov described his arrest in court docket: “Fifteen people came to me at night, beat me, were punching me in the face.”

Mr. Putin has for years denounced something that goes towards what he calls “traditional family values” as un-Russian and influenced by the West.

In 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court banned what it referred to as the “international social LGBT movement” as an “extremist organisation”.

Human Rights Watch has mentioned that the ruling “opened the floodgates for arbitrary prosecutions of individuals who are LGBT or perceived to be, along with anyone who defends their rights or expresses solidarity with them”.

Russia has by no means been a hospitable atmosphere for LGBTQ individuals, however has change into way more harmful since Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, which massively accelerated the nation’s hardline conservative flip.