A number of public activists are planning to file a lawsuit for compensation for moral damages after the pop star’s concert. According to them, the singer violated the local ban on the promotion of homosexuality during her performance. This case may have legal prospects, lawyers say.

A concert in St. Petersburg could cost Madonna 333 million rubles. Representatives of several public organizations in the city are planning to sue the singer. In their opinion, during her performance in the Russian Northern capital, Madonna violated the law banning the promotion of homosexuality. The singer's concert took place on August 9. Madonna gave a speech and called on her fans to be tolerant.

"It's a very strange time. I travel around the world and I feel more and more fear in the air. People are afraid of those who are different from them. They are becoming less and less tolerant. It is a very scary time. But we can change this “We have the power. And we must do this not with force, but on the contrary, with love,” she said.

According to civil activists in St. Petersburg, Madonna caused serious moral harm to the residents of the city. Representatives of public organizations specifically went to the concert to record possible violations of the law, press secretary of the Trade Union of Russian Citizens Daria Dedova told Kommersant FM.

“Among the initiators of the lawsuit will be those people who were directly at the concert and saw with their own eyes everything that unfolded on the site, as well as those who gleaned information on the Internet,” she said. “We are going to court in order to to compensate for the moral damage that Madonna caused by her behavior and ignorance of Russian legislation. In general, we believe that it is impossible to evaluate moral compensation; it is not expressed in money. I think that Louise Ciccone is not going to ask for forgiveness, she considers herself absolutely right in this regard. In this case, we begin to speak the language of money."

The presence in St. Petersburg of a law banning the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia among children will not help those filing a lawsuit in court, says Ruslan Konorev, a lawyer at the Moscow Bar Association "Knyazev and Partners".

“Here the reference to this law in the framework of the moral suffering of citizens is not entirely clear. After all, in principle, if it were not for this law, they would have suffered less?

That is, if a person, for example, has a negative attitude towards manifestations of sympathy for sexual minorities, whether this law exists or not, what difference does it make if the person is objectively unpleasant? Therefore, here the degree of this suffering is assessed by the court. I think that if the claim is accepted and if you build your position correctly, then it can be satisfied,” Konorev noted.

According to rough estimates, if you divide the amount that activists demand from Madonna by the number of St. Petersburg residents, then each city resident can potentially claim 666 kopecks. True, the initiators of the lawsuit promised, if successful, to send this money to charity.

Daria Gorstkina

Offended St. Petersburg residents will appeal to Madonna through court