In Sochi, police accused the Moscow model Alina Milova and her friend Veronika Mikhailova of LGBTQ+ propaganda for kissing on a bench in Sochi. Mediazona writes about this. Evening 2 August Milova and Mikhailova walked along the Sochi embankment, periodically stopping at benches and drinking wine. Once again the girls sat down on the bench and kissed. The police approached them and took them to the police station – at first they called a “drug test” the reason for their arrest. Already at the department they were informed of suspicion of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” – this is an administrative article (Part 1 of Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code), the minimum fine for it is 50 thousand rubles.
According to Milova, in this area they were the first to be prosecuted under this article. The girl said that the police had to Google article, since they did not know what to charge them with. Also, according to her, the head of the department spent an hour reading Milova’s correspondence and watching a video in which her friend tried on a dress and underwear. The police, according to the model, made sarcastic remarks about their friends, calling them “lesbians.”
Veronica Mikhailova was handcuffed after she argued with a police officer about her civil rights and refused to hand over her passport. The police also laughed at her appearance, namely her short hair, and said that she “looked like a boy.”
“They started arguing with me. I started arguing with them. I don’t give the police my passport out of principle. One snatched my passport, I [обратно] I grab my passport [из рук полицейского], he begins to twist my arms, others try to hold me. I tore his shirt a little because I was pulling on it. And that’s it, they tied me up in handcuffs and to the wall, in short, they moored me. I felt very bad, no one even brought me water. I just lay down on the asphalt, handcuffed, in the very heat.”
At the same time, Milova notes that the station employees were at a loss. “Actually, a couple of police girls at the station said that they would kiss me too. And their girlfriends sometimes do this,” said Alina. According to Milova, she and Mikhailova are close friends and are not in a relationship. Milova does not consider herself LGBTQ+.
This seems to be the first case in Russia where, under the law on “LGBT propaganda,” people are prosecuted for same-sex kissing on the street. In fact, this is not a punishment for any propaganda, but for same-sex relationships themselves. The repressive law itself is “rubber”; it does not stipulate any criteria for “propaganda”. This will make it possible to punish everyone whose lifestyle seems wrong to the authorities, experts told The Insider about this back in November 2022 at the stage of preparing the document for the second reading. Read more about how “LGBT propaganda” can affect any person in Russia with any orientation in the material “Judges and police will decide on the spot.” According to the law on “gay propaganda”, even childfree people can be fined.