The channels REN TV and 78.ru, part of Yuri Kovalchuk’s National Media Group, published a report about a special forces raid on a cottage with civil activists in Koltushi near St. Petersburg. REN TV in its headline called the celebration “an LGBT party against the SVO.”
OMON soldiers in masks and bulletproof vests forced the guests to lie on the floor, and then took turns asking the camera questions: “Do you consider yourself to be part of the LGBT community?” and “Are you a boy or a girl?” They answer that they came there for their birthday.
One of the participants in the celebration toldon their Telegram channel that their support group was held in the cottage, including for transpeople, there were about ten people there .
Security forces broke into their place on the morning of February 18. According to the participant, they were thrown onto the tiles and kept there for about four hours. In addition to verbal humiliation, people who were lying down were lifted by their hair to answer questions on camera, were not allowed to go to the toilet and were kicked, and were also forced to take turns undressing in front of the investigator.
The footage of security forces in the reports of REN TV and 78.ru is accompanied by a female voice-over: “In the house they found things with symbols of the LGBT movement, banned in Russia, suspicious documents, handwritten opposition materials.”
As an example of the latter propagandists published a sheet with the answers of one of the party participants at a psychological training. It asked people to describe their worries and hopes for the future in two columns; the answers were related to the war and persecution of activists in Russia.
Separately, the REN TV employee pointed out that the cottage was rented from Elena Belokurova, the former head of the German-Russian Exchange. The organization supported NGOs and educational projects, and in 2021 it was recognized as “undesirable” in Russia.
According to a post by an event participant, after the search, security forces returned the equipment and demanded that the guests leave the cottage immediately. Although 78.ru calls the event “a party with several criminal charges,” specific charges are not named, nor is any other evidence provided that the guests of the event are under criminal prosecution.