The Central District Court of Orenburg arrested the owner of the gay bar Pose. This was reported by the press service of the court.
The man is accused of organizing the work of an extremist cell (Part 1 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code). According to Orenday, he was detained in Moscow on March 29.
On March 20, the same Central District Court of Orenburg sent the administrator and art director of Pose to a pre-trial detention center. According to the security forces, they created branches of the “international public association of LGBT people.” This is the first known such case since LGBT was recognized as an “extremist organization” in Russia.
Pose Bar opened in 2021 and regularly hosted drag parties. They called themselves “the first thematicestablishment» of the city, and after the adoption of the law on «LGBT propaganda» they began to present themselves as a «bar-theater of parodies» and a «night bar with a show program.» As a precaution, the bar's managers did not write the address on social networks; they were not on Yandex and Google maps.
On March 9, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with riot police, conducted a raid in the bar, footage of which was posted by members of the pro-government movement «Russian community of Orenburg». Partygoers, some in their underwear, were filmed forced to lie on the floor and stand against the wall, and then asked what they were doing in the “fag club.” Unlike the security forces, the faces of the visitors were not blurred out on the video.
A week and a half later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially reported on the raid. According to the court, Pose employees “performed financial and economic functions” and looked for artists for the show, and at the same time “promoted non-traditional sexual relationships.”
