Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Russia face severe legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents.

[4][5] Although sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex is legal,[1] homosexuality is disapproved of by most of the population and pro-LGBTQ advocacy groups are deemed "extremist" and banned.

Despite receiving international criticism for the recent increase in social discrimination, crimes, and violence against homosexuals, larger cities such as Moscow[6] and Saint Petersburg[7] have been said[by whom?]

[11] The revised criminal code of 1961 continued to classify sexual relations between men as a crime, relocating it to Article 121 and providing for only a maximum of five years' imprisonment for consensual sex.

[13] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, homosexual acts between consenting males were re-legalised in 1993 (they had not been criminalised for women), removing Article 121 from the RSFSR penal code.

[17][18] In a report issued on 13 April 2017, a panel of five expert advisors to the United Nations Human Rights Council—Vitit Muntarbhorn, Sètondji Roland Adjovi; Agnès Callamard; Nils Melzer; and David Kaye—condemned the wave of torture and killings of gay men in Chechnya.

[24][25][26][27][28] Under the reign of Peter the Great in the 18th, who introduced a wide range of reforms aimed at modernizing and Westernizing Russia, there was a ban on male homosexual activity, but only in military statutes for soldiers.

[44] The psychiatrists sustain the objections to pride parades and the use of veiled schemes to lay off openly lesbian and gay persons from schools, child care centres, and other public institutions.

On 1 July 2003, a new military medical expertise statute was adopted; it said people "who have problems with their identity and sexual preferences" can only be drafted during war times.

According to one Russian source "In connection with the special operation, many young people have turned to private clinics to provide a sex change to avoid conscription..."Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the Duma, claims that some "2,700" such decisions have been made in "recent times".

[64][65] In 2010, Russia was fined by the European Court of Human Rights, ruling that, as alleged by Alexeyev, Russian cities were discriminating against the gay community by refusing to authorize pride parades.

Although authorities had claimed allowing pride events to be held would pose a risk of violence, the Court ruled that their decisions "effectively approved of and supported groups who had called for [their] disruption.

[67][68][69] Anti-gay purges in the Chechen Republic have included forced disappearances — secret abductions, imprisonment, and torture — by authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation.

An unknown number of men, who authorities detained on suspicion of being gay or bisexual, have reportedly died after being held in what human rights groups and eyewitnesses have called concentration camps.

The Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov denied not only the occurrence of any persecution but also the existence of gay men in Chechnya, adding that such people would be killed by their own families.

A report released in December 2018 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed claims that persecution of LGBTQ persons had taken place and was ignored by authorities.

[88][89] In March 2021, Reuters reported that the European Union imposed economic sanctions on two Chechen officials accused of persecuting LGBTQ people in Chechnya.

[91] Anton Krasovsky, a television news anchor at government-run KontrTV, was immediately fired[97][98] from his job in January 2013 when he announced during a live broadcast that he is gay and disgusted by the national anti-gay propaganda legislation that had been proposed although had not yet passed.

[103] The Libertarian Party of Russia, formed in 2007, has objected to the government ban on "gay propaganda" as a violation of people's right to freedom of speech.

The crimes committed by the numerous hate groups follow the same scenario.The presumed paedophile is subjected to a filmed interrogation in which the microphone is replaced by a dildo or a toilet brush.

The presumed paedophile must often call close people in his life – his wife, children, brother or employer – and has to confess his guilt in front of the camera.

[127] On 29 December 2014, Russia passed a road safety law, allowing the government to deny driver's licenses to people with several classes of mental disorders according to ICD-10.

[132] In 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation developed a draft medical certificate that will help transgender people with confirming their gender identity on their legal documents.

[137] State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the number of gender reassignment surgeries in the U.S. has increased by 50 times over the past 10 years, and around 1.4% of all US teenagers aged between 13 and 17 identified themselves as transgender in 2022.

[citation needed] In 2019, Russia cut and censored gay sex scenes in the movie musical Rocketman based on the life of British singer Elton John, a decision he criticized, saying it is "cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people.

[147][148][149][150] Additionally the laws have received international condemnation from human rights campaigners, and media outlets that even display of LGBT symbols, such as the rainbow flag, have resulted in arrests, and incited homophobic violence.

[155] Commenting on the bill prior to its passage, President Putin said, during a visit to Amsterdam in April 2013, "I want everyone to understand that in Russia there are no infringements on sexual minorities' rights.

[151] Critics say that the statute is written so broadly that it is in effect a complete ban on the gay rights movement and any public expression of LGBT culture.

This decision raised concerns for LGBTQ+ individuals and organisations in Russia, as it could lead to criminal prosecution for simple acts like displaying the rainbow flag, and was seen as part of President Putin's campaign to emphasize "Russian traditional values."

[183][184][185][186] United States President Barack Obama said that while he did not favour boycotting the Sochi Olympics over the law, "Nobody's more offended than me about some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation that you've been seeing in Russia".