Police detain a LGBT actviist during a rally for free internet in Moscow, Russia, 26 August 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEI ILNITSKY

Russia has come last in a European ranking of LGBT rights for the second year running, according to an annual study published on Wednesday by LGBT rights organisation ILGA-Europe.

Coming in 49th out of 49 countries, Russia was joined at the bottom of the table for the lamentable situation surrounding LGBT rights, by Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia and Belarus, in ascending order, the study showed.

The five countries with the best LGBT rights in Europe were Malta, Belgium, Iceland, Denmark and Spain. Austria and Latvia climbed four spots in the rankings, while Germany, Czechia and Poland all climbed three, according to the data.

Countries which made a significant drop in the rankings were Hungary, the first EU country to ban a Pride march, Georgia, where the authorities have introduced a number of Russian-inspired anti-LGBT laws and the United Kingdom, where the Supreme Court recently ruled that gender markers were to be based strictly on biological sex, the study showed.

To produce the rankings, analysts from ILGA-Europe examined laws and policies in 49 countries using 76 criteria, divided into seven categories, including equality and non-discrimination, hate crimes, legal gender recognition and asylum rights for LGBT persons.

The Russian Supreme Court declared the non-existent “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organisation” in November 2023, while the country’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed laws banning LGBT propaganda in the country a year earlier, with queer spaces in the country facing a crackdown on their activities as a result.