A male medic was arrested in Moscow on Monday, October 7 for “satanism” and “promoting same-sex relationships”.
In recent years, Russia has intensified a legal crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in defence of what it calls “traditional family values”.
In July 2023, Russian lawmakers outlawed legal or medical changes of gender for transgender Russians, and a law banning the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations has been on the books for more than a decade.
The FSB security service said it had arrested the head of a medical institution in the Ulyanovsk region, accusing him of “devil worshipping.”
Such accusations from state authorities are rare, but the influence of the Orthodox Church has steadily risen as Russia takes an increasingly conservative social turn.
“In the course of operational searches, it was established that this person, being a supporter of Satanism, promoted the idea of same-sex relations among subordinate employees as a way of initiating them into devil worshipping,” the FSB said.
It said a criminal case has been opened over coercion to engage in sexual acts and participate in an extremist organisation.
Russia, which is bottom in Europe for LGBTQ+ rights, banned what it called the “international LGBT movement” in November last year.
