Nizhny Novgorod prosecutors seek to ban far-right hate group ‘Male State’

The Nizhny Novgorod Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit with the regional court seeking to ban the far-right hate group “Male State” (Muzhskoe Gosudarstvo in Russian).

This was reported by Mediazona, citing a case listing on the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court’s website. The defendants in the case are Male State founder Vladislav Pozdnyakov, as well as Igor Nosov and Dmitry Gubanov.

The court’s press office told Interfax that the lawsuit also asks the court to designate Male State as an extremist organization.

In a response on Telegram, Pozdnyakov wrote that he “doesn’t care” since he “hasn’t run this brand for a year.” He also claimed that “crooked police officers and prosecutors working with hucksters and LGBT propagandists” are behind the case, alleging that these officials are being paid off by the restaurant chain “Tanuki.”

In August, Pozdnyakov urged his followers to go after Tanuki — a Russian chain of Japanese restaurants — for featuring a Black model and the rainbow flag in its marketing materials.

Rather than succumbing to the pressure campaign, the restaurant chain launched its own social media campaign, urging its customers to reach out to Telegram founder Pavel Durov and demand that the messaging platform block Pozdnyakov’s channel. Tanuki also asked its customers to appeal to Russia’s Digital Development Ministry and federal censor.

• The name “Male State” was linked to a number of private groups on the Russian social network VKontakte that proclaimed an ideology described as “national patriarchy.” The social network blocked “Male State” in 2020, but the group still has an active channel on Telegram.
• Male State’s founder, Vladislav Pozdnyakov, was handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2018 for inciting hatred against women. His sentence was overturned three months later, after which Pozdnyakov left Russia.