A court in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok has arrested ex-presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin’s local campaign head for “LGBT propaganda,” the independent news outlet Mediazona reported Wednesday.
Igor Krasnov was ordered to six days of arrest on charges of “displaying extremist symbols,” Mediazona reported, citing his friends.
Russia’s Supreme Court outlawed the “international LGBT movement,” a group that does not formally exist, labeling it an “extremist” group.
The charges against Krasnov stem from his posting an image of a rainbow flag in the Vladivostok campaign headquarters’ closed Telegram chat which was hacked by security forces, the OVD-Info rights group reported.
The chat reportedly consisted of 12 people.
Nadezhdin’s Vladivostok headquarters said earlier Wednesday that three of its members — Krasnov, Daniil Laptev, and Anastasia Konkova — were “taken away by unknown people in civilian clothes.”
Laptev and Konkova’s whereabouts are unknown.
Another volunteer for Nadezhdin’s Vladivostok headquarters, Vladislav Spirenkov, was also arrested for six days for “displaying prohibited symbols,” OVD-Info reported.
A number of Russians have been charged with displaying or wearing “extremist symbols” since the Supreme Court’s ban on the LGBTQ+ movement in November 2023.
Pro-peace presidential hopeful Nadezhdin, who was seen as a rare challenge to President Vladimir Putin in this month’s tightly controlled election, was barred from the ballot over alleged errors in his endorsement signatures.
