In Yaroslavl, security forces raided a nightclub where a drag show was taking place. A protocol was drawn up against one of the artists for “propaganda” of LGBT people

On the night of October 26-27, security forces conducted a raid at the Dark House nightclub in Yaroslavl, where a drag show was taking place, one of the visitors to the establishment told the Guys Plus portal.

According to the portal’s interlocutor, the police arrived in unmarked cars around one in the morning. They burst into the club and forced everyone to lie down on the floor. According to an eyewitness, the police shouted and insulted the party guests, and beat some of them. “You couldn’t even step on the inside. Everything is on the floor. They screamed like ******* [abnormals], they insulted everyone, beat someone, and something else. [From there] they didn’t let us out, they put us on the floor,” she says.

The visitors, as Guys Plus writes, were kept on the cold floor for several hours, including those who were very lightly dressed.

Another Yaroslavl resident also reported the police raid to the human rights project OVD-Info. According to him, this drag show was supposed to be the last, after which they planned to close the club.

According to OVD-Info, during the raid, police detained one of the drag artists. A friend of his told me about this. According to him, the drag artist was kept in the police department for more than 10 hours and an administrative protocol was drawn up against him for “propaganda” of LGBT people (Part 1 of Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code).

The local telegram channel “About the City of Yaroslavl” also wrote about the raid on the club. According to him, police detained several people.

• In early December 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a law banning LGBTQ “propaganda” and “gender change,” and a year later, on November 30, 2023, the Supreme Court recognized the non-existent “international LGBT social movement” as an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia. After this, activists began to leave the country, under threat of persecution, and gay clubs began to close.