Russia declares LGBTQ rights activist Igor Kochetkov a ‘foreign agent’

The Russian Justice Ministry has designated well-known LGBTQ+ rights activist Igor Kochetkov as a “foreign agent.” The ministry added Kochetkov to its “foreign-agent media” registry on Friday, November 12.

Kochetkov heads the Russian LGBT Network, an organization best known for its emergency evacuations of at-risk LGBTQ+ people from the repressive Chechen Republic.

His designation comes less than a week after the Justice Ministry blacklisted the Russian LGBT Network as an “unregistered public association performing the functions of a ‘foreign agent.’”

• The Russian Justice Ministry’s registry of “foreign-agent media” includes 95 individuals and organizations. Of these, 77 were blacklisted as “foreign agents” between April and November 2021.