Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned the LGBT+ “international movement” for extremism, as well as all its “branches” in Russia, amid an ultra-conservative turn in that country, AFP and Reuters reported, citing Agerpres.

The judge read his verdict to the press after a closed-door hearing, saying the decision was to take effect “immediately.” The hearing was held without a defense attorney, as there is no such organization in Russia, but the Supreme Court’s decision results in a ban on any group that advocates for LGBT+ people.

The decision came after Russia’s Justice Ministry demanded in mid-November that the “international LGBT movement” be classified as an “extremist organization” and banned from Russian territory, without specifying which organization it was targeting.

Russia, a moral defender in the face of a decadent West, is stepping up its conservative measures aimed at the LGBT+ community, claiming it protects children from behavior it classifies as “deviant”.

Starting in July, Russian clinics began hiring sexologists to “help” patients “overcome” homosexuality and a range of other “sexual mental disorders,” according to a copy of the government order obtained by Reuters days before its publication. enters into force.

In 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Russia did the same in 1999.

Russia intensifies repression against LGBT people

But last December, Putin passed a law expanding restrictions on what Russian authorities call “LGBT propaganda,” effectively banning any public expression of gay sexual identity.

Authorities in Russia have already used this law and others passed before to shut down LGBT parades and arrest gay rights activists.

In June, a regional court fined the director of an LGBT rights group 150,000 rubles ($1,715) after the group failed to identify itself as a “foreigner” in a social media post, as required by the new law.

As a result, the streaming service was fined 3.7 million rubles ($42,295) this Thursday for failing to display warnings about “LGBT content” on the movies it streams.

The Kremlin claims that homosexuality is a form of Western decadence

Also in June, the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, initially approved a new law banning gender reassignment surgery.

The Russian president has raised the issue of homosexuality several times since the start of the war in Ukraine to illustrate what the Kremlin calls Western “decadence.”

But the topic of gays has been used as a scare by the Kremlin, including during the 2020 constitutional referendum in which Putin awarded himself the right to remain in power until 2036.

Putin revived the theme of Western decline in a speech delivered via video conference this Wednesday before the XXV World Council of the Russian People, an organization patronized by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The head of the Kremlin also said that the Russian military is “fighting for the freedom of the whole world,” and that “the West is trying to dismember and rob” his country.

“We defend the safety and well-being of our people, the highest, historical right to be Russia – a great, independent state, a civilized country,” he added.