Justice Ministry to appeal ECHR ruling on Russian ‘gay propaganda law’

According to the statement published on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, the ban does not contradict international practices and the sole purpose of the law was to protect children’s morals and health.

The statement was released soon after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law, often described in the mass media as a ‘gay propaganda ban’, was discriminatory and encouraged homophobia. The court took the side of three Russian activists who were convicted in Russia for violating the ban between 2009 and 2012, and ordered the Russian state to pay compensation for damages.

One of the main sponsors of the original Russian bill, State Duma MP Vitaly Milonov (United Russia) called the ECHR ruling a “propaganda stunt” and a “bludgeon” used by neo-liberals to destroy their opponents.

“This court became an information propaganda dump quite some time ago and everyone should stop calling it a court. Because a court is something independent and important,” Milonov told RT.

“The ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] is nothing more than a branch of the propaganda machine servicing the European neoliberal circles. It has already stopped protecting the human rights and liberties, now they use it as a bludgeon for making threats,” he added.

The lawmaker also said that the ruling can be easily ignored in Russia.

In 2013, Russia introduced the law banning any promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to persons under 18. Before being approved nationwide, the law had been passed at a municipal level in the city of St. Petersburg.

The law ordered fines for breaches of the ban, including in the media, on the internet and via viral advertisements. Holding LGBT rallies was also prohibited as well as distribution of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual concepts in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting a distorted understanding of a social equality between traditional and non-traditional relations, and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.

In late 2015, two Communist Party lawmakers proposed an additional ban on any public demonstration of “non-traditional” sexual orientation, however this bill has not been passed by the parliament.