Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) has expanded its list of extremist and terrorist organizations to include the “LGBT movement,” enabling the tracking of their activities.
Rosfinmonitoring now has the authority to freeze bank accounts associated with individuals or groups identified as extremists or terrorists, which currently encompasses around 14,000 entities.
Among the organizations listed are al-Qaeda, the Islamist terror group, and Meta, the American tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram.
Associates of the late Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, are also included.
The decision to add the “international LGBT social movement and its structural units” to the list follows a ruling by Russia’s supreme court last November, affirming the Ministry of Justice’s classification of the “international LGBT movement” as extremist.
The court also banned its structural divisions.
Over the past decade, Russia has increasingly tightened regulations on expressions of sexual orientation and gender identity, citing adherence to President Vladimir Putin’s proclaimed family values.
This includes outlawing the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations and prohibiting legal or medical gender changes.
