Russian police raid Moscow nightclubs in LGBTQ+ crackdown

Russian police raided several bars and nightclubs across Moscow on Saturday as part of the government’s crackdown on “LGBTQ+ propaganda,” state media reported.

Smartphones, laptops and video cameras were seized, while clubgoers had their documents inspected by officers, Russia’s Tass news agency said, citing sources in law enforcement.

The raids come exactly a year since Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that the “LGBTQ+ movement” should be banned as an “extremist organization.”

Its decision followed a decades-long crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has touted “traditional family values” as a cornerstone of his quarter-century in power.

Footage shared on social media appeared to show partygoers being ordered by police to lie on the floor as officers moved through Moscow’s Arma nightclub.

The capital’s Mono bar was also targeted, Russian media reported. In a post on Telegram on Saturday, the club’s management didn’t directly reference an incident with law enforcement, but wrote, “Friends, we’re so sorry that what happened, happened. They didn’t find anything forbidden. We live in such times, but life must go on.”