Rainbow emoji in Instagram post earns Russian anti-war artist 10 days behind bars

A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg has ordered artist and anti-war activist Alisa Gorshenina to spend 10 days behind bars for using a rainbow emoji in an Instagram post, Russian independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Friday.

Gorshenina, 31, was detained in her hometown of Nizhny Tagil in the Urals on Thursday before being taken to regional capital Yekaterinburg on Friday, where she was found guilty of displaying “extremist” symbols, her husband Sergey Vlasov wrote on her Instagram profile.

Gorshenina’s lawyer later confirmed to human rights organisation OVD-Info that the “extremist” symbol in question had been a rainbow emoji in one of her Instagram posts.

According to Vlasov, Gorshenina has also been charged with disseminating “LGBT propaganda” and “discrediting” the Russian military, for which court dates have been scheduled for early May.

Gorshenina, who is known for her works exploring the mythology of her native Urals region, has already faced pressure from the authorities for her opposition to the war in Ukraine.

In 2022, she was fined 35,000 rubles (€370) for “discrediting” the Russian military after holding a white rose with anti-war messages written in the minority Chuvash and Tatar languages on its ribbons during a solo protest in Nizhny Tagil.

After her works were removed from an exhibition at a Moscow gallery in February, Gorshenina wrote that she was being subjected to “digital harassment, denunciations and threats” due to her anti-war stance and accused pro-war groups including the ultranationalist movement Zov Naroda of “trying to cut off any” remaining opportunities she had to show her art in Russia.

“My works are being removed from exhibitions, and people will no longer collaborate with me. Some say nothing, while others whisper in my ear that, ‘when this is all over, we’ll definitely start working with you again’,” Gorshenina wrote.

Despite the mounting pressure on her, Gorshenina has repeatedly stressed that she has no intention of leaving Russia.

Russia imposed a total ban on what it terms “LGBT propaganda” in November 2022 before outlawing the non-existent “international LGBT movement” as “extremist” a year later. Since then, the authorities have further cracked down on queer establishments and the expression of any form of queer identity.

Earlier this week, a Moscow court began hearing a civil case for spreading “LGBT propaganda” that was brought against Apple for offering users the option of having rainbow flag wallpaper in its latest iOS update, while on Tuesday Russia’s Supreme Court labelled queer journalist Vadim Vaganov an “extremist”, the first time it has named an individual an extremist for their queer activism.