[12][13][14] Social democratic Fair Russia member of parliament Alexander Chuev was also opposed to gay rights and attempted to introduce a similar "propaganda" law in 2007.

In response, prominent LGBT rights activist and Moscow Pride founder Nikolay Alexeyev disclosed on the television talk show К барьеру!

[15] In 2010, Russia was fined by the European Court of Human Rights under allegations by Alexeyev that cities were discriminating against gays by refusing to approve pride parades.

This includes content which "may elicit fear, horror, or panic in children" among minors, pornography, along with materials which glorify violence, unlawful activities, substance abuse, or self-harm.

"[30] Human Rights Watch noted that Putin's enactment of the law allowed him to pander to socially conservative voters at home and "position Russia as a champion of so-called 'traditional values'" on the global stage.

[31] Article 1 of the bill amended On Protecting Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development with a provision classifying "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships" as a class of materials that must not be distributed among minors.

[34] In August 2013, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko also defended the law, equating it to protecting children from content that glorifies alcohol abuse or drug addiction.

[35] The passing of the law was met with major international backlash, especially from the Western world, as critics considered it an attempt to effectively ban the promotion of LGBT rights and culture in the country.

[49] The same day, gay rights group All Out similarly coordinated worldwide protests in London, New York City, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro.

[50] On 8 February 2014, a flash mob was held in Cambridge, England, featuring same-sex couples embracing and hugging, as part of a video project known as "From Russia With Love".

In practice, the law has given police broad license to interpret almost any mention of being LGBT—whether uttered, printed, or signified by waving a rainbow flag—as just cause to arrest LGBT people.

"[56] The US State Department in its 2013 report on human rights in Russia noted the clarification from Roskomnadzor (the Russian Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications) that the "gay propaganda" prohibited under the law includes materials which "directly or indirectly approve of people who are in nontraditional sexual relationships.

[61] The Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional law, the Venice Commission, passed a resolution in 2013 stating that bans on "propaganda of homosexuality" "are incompatible with ECHR and international human rights standards" for several reasons.

This has been reported by a number of research projects and NGOs (two Russian NGOs—LGBT Initiative Group Stimul and SOVA Center and two international organization—OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights – ODIHR).

The protests targeted Tchaikovsky's own homosexuality, and the involvement of two Russians in the production; soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev, as they were identified as vocal supporters of Putin's government.

Isakov had performed a similar protest in the same location the previous day as a "test" run, but was later caught in an altercation with police officers who targeted his pro-gay activism, and arrested him for swearing.

[43][79] In December 2013, Nikolay Alexeyev and Yaroslav Yevtushenko were fined 4,000 rubles for picketing outside a children's library in Arkhangelsk with banners reading, "Gays aren't made, they're born!"

"[81][82][83] Elena Klimova has been charged under the law multiple times for operating Children-404—an online support group for LGBT youth on the social networking services VKontakte and Facebook.

[86] In November 2014, one day after current Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook publicly announced that he was proud of being gay,[87] it was reported that an iPhone-shaped memorial honoring its late co-founder Steve Jobs had been removed from a Saint Petersburg university campus by its installer, the West European Financial Union (ZEFS).

[89] Roskomnadzor later ruled that by themselves, emoji depicting same-sex couples did not constitute a violation of the propaganda law, as whether they have a positive or negative connotation depends on their actual context and usage.

[96] Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva criticized Tregaro's gesture as being disrespectful to the host country, stating in a press conference that "we have our law which everyone has to respect.

[97] The implications of the law on Russia's hosting of two major international sporting events, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi (where seven LGBT athletes, all female, were expected to compete)[98] and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, were called into question.

[101][102] The IOC also confirmed that it would enforce Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which forbids political protest, against athletes who make displays of support for the LGBT community at the Games.

[115] Several major non-sponsors also made pro-LGBT statements to coincide with the opening of the Games; Google placed a quotation from the Olympic Charter and an Olympic-themed logo in the colours of the rainbow flag on its home page worldwide,[116] while Channel 4 (who serves as the official British broadcaster of the Paralympics) adopted a rainbow-coloured logo and broadcast a "celebratory", pro-LGBT advert entitled "Gay Mountain" on 7 February 2014, alongside an interview with former rugby union player and anti-homophobia activist Ben Cohen.

As part of its Dispatches series, Channel 4 had also broadcast a documentary during the week of the Opening Ceremony entitled Hunted, which documented the violence and abuse against LGBT people in Russia in the wake of the law.

[119][120][121] In December 2016, the video game FIFA 17 (which is also published by Electronic Arts) was targeted for an event that allowed users to obtain rainbow-coloured shoelaces for their virtual footballers, in support of a pro-LGBT advocacy campaign backed by the English Premier League.

[122] In December 2016, Blizzard Entertainment geo-blocked a tie-in web comic for its game Overwatch in Russia for containing a scene of the character Tracer, who was confirmed as being lesbian, kissing her partner, another woman.

[123][124] In February 2021, Miitopia received an 18+ rating due to the ability of same-sex Miis being able to form "relationships" with each other despite no actual sexual content whatsoever being present in the game.

[125] In July 2022, Communist politician Nina Ostanina co-sponsored a bill that would ban "the denial of family values" and the promotion of "non-traditional sexual orientations".

"[129] On 27 October 2022, the State Duma unanimously passed a proposed bill that expands the gay propaganda law to cover any age group, instead of only minors.