One of the images for which a woman in Karachay-Cherkessia was fined. Photo: VK

A court in the Russian republic of Karachay-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus has fined a local woman for disseminating “LGBT propaganda” over images of rainbow flags she posted on Russian social media platform VK over five years ago.

During the trial, which was held in the city of Cherkessk on 9 September, the court heard how the woman, whose name has not been made public, had posted photos containing “symbols of the extremist LGBT community” using an online pseudonym.

Novaya Europe has established that three images with rainbow flags were published on the page in question, one of which depicts two girls kissing. The posts were dated 26 May 2020, since when the page has not been updated.

The woman, who admitted her guilt, expressed remorse and requested leniency, told the court that she had created the page herself and had not opened it in the last five years. She was ultimately issued with a fine of 1,000 rubles (€10).

Earlier this month, a man from the city of Krasnoyarsk, in western Siberia, was likewise fined 1,000 rubles for posting audio recordings on VK of rap group Tyazhyolaya Atletika, whose album Injection depicts a rainbow in homage to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, according to human rights NGO OVD-Info.

In May, a court fined an activist from the republic of Bashkortostan, in the Volga region, 2,000 rubles (€20) for an emoji which featured the same Pink Floyd album cover, independent news outlet Mediazona reported.

Russia’s Supreme Court ruled the so-called “International LGBT Movement” to be an “extremist organisation” in November 2023, while the country’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, expanded a law banning “LGBT propaganda” to apply to adults as well as minors, leading to a nationwide crackdown on queer spaces as a result.