Russian court upholds “extremist” ban on Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality
An appeals court in St Petersburg has upheld the ban on the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality, meaning the ruling has now entered into force and continued participation in the group’s activities can lead to criminal prosecution. Among the Alliance’s best-known honorary members is British actor Sir Ian McKellen, known worldwide for playing Gandalf.
ST PETERSBURG, 24 September 2026 — Russia’s Second Appellate Court of General Jurisdiction today upheld the 23 June 2026 ruling of the St Petersburg City Court designating the Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality an “extremist” organization and banning its activities in Russia.
The ruling, issued following a lawsuit brought by the Russian Ministry of Justice, has therefore entered into force. The Alliance can now be added to Russia’s official register of extremist organizations, while people associated with it may face individual criminal prosecution.
Under Article 282.2 of the Russian Criminal Code, participation in the activities of an organization designated as extremist can carry a prison sentence of two to six years, while organizing its activities is punishable by six to ten years in prison. Continued participation in the organization’s activities, assistance to it or dissemination of its materials may expose individuals to criminal prosecution, depending on how the authorities classify their actions.
The judgment treats ordinary human rights advocacy in support of LGBT people and equality as evidence of “extremism.” According to the ruling, the Alliance’s activities were allegedly aimed at the “destruction of fundamental Russian spiritual and moral values” and constituted a “threat to the foundations of the constitutional order.”
Activities presented as evidence of “extremism” included support for LGBT people, criticism of Russian legislation, peaceful public protests, publication of LGBT people’s personal stories, and recommendations of books and films.The judgment also attributed to the Alliance activities that the movement says it never carried out, including providing medical and legal assistance, operating hotlines, monitoring discrimination and submitting reports to the United Nations. Its reasoning closely mirrors that used in cases against other Russian LGBT organizations.
The only individual admitted to the proceedings as an interested party was Aleksei Sergeev, a bisexual activist from St Petersburg, who is identified in the case materials as the Alliance’s coordinator..
The case was heard behind closed doors because parts of it were classified “top secret.” Access to some of the materials, including the Ministry of Justice lawsuit itself, was restricted to the Alliance’s lawyers, who were prohibited from sharing their contents even with their clients.
The Alliance intends to continue challenging the ruling, including by filing a cassation appeal. The Russian human rights organization First Department assisted in developing the legal strategy for the case.
“The ruling is not merely absurd — it is inhumane and serves the interests of Russia’s current homophobic regime. Peaceful human rights and anti-discrimination work has been labelled extremism.
“We hope that one day the legality of this decision will be assessed by the UN Human Rights Committee. In 2025, the European Court of Human Rights already ruled in our favour in a case concerning the 2021 blocking of our VKontakte community, which had an audience of around 33,000 people,” representatives of the Alliance said.
About the Alliance
The Alliance of Heterosexuals and LGBT for Equality was founded in St Petersburg in May 2012. It brought together heterosexual and cisgender allies and LGBT people around the principle that equal rights and freedoms should apply to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Over nearly a decade and a half, the Alliance organized more than one hundred human rights actions and dozens of educational events. Initiative groups operated in several Russian cities, while its social media communities reached tens of thousands of people.
Its work ranged from LGBT rights advocacy and anti-discrimination campaigns to peaceful protest, educational programs and broader civic solidarity initiatives. Among its projects were the Rainbow Column at St Petersburg’s May Day demonstration, the multi-day Equality Week festivals and the ABC of Activism program, whose seminars were held in 17 cities across Russia, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. The Alliance also took part in broader human rights and civic initiatives, including anti-war protests, and was one of the co-founders of the Democratic Petersburg coalition of civil society and human rights groups.
In 2016, British actor and LGBT rights advocate Sir Ian McKellen, known worldwide for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, became an honorary member of the Alliance.
In recent years, public offline activity under the Alliance’s name inside Russia had largely ceased, with most activity and historical materials remaining online.
In March 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated the Alliance a “foreign agent.” Several people associated with the movement were subsequently fined under Russia’s “foreign agent” legislation and so-called “LGBT propaganda” laws.
Part of a wider crackdown
The ruling against the Alliance is part of a broader campaign that escalated after Russia’s Supreme Court, on 30 November 2023, designated the vaguely defined so-called “International LGBT Movement” and its supposed “structural units” as extremist.
The ruling created a basis for Russia’s anti-extremism legislation to be applied to individuals and organizations engaged in LGBT rights advocacy, community support, public education and other forms of LGBT-related activity.
During 2026, Russian courts have successively designated a series of LGBT organizations and initiatives as “extremist,” including Coming Out, the LGBT Resource Centre, the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives, Parni+, Irida, Kallisto, the Russian LGBT Network, Centre T, T9 NSK and SK SOS Crisis Group. Some have already been entered into official extremist registers, while appeals in other cases are still ongoing.
Human Rights Watch documented nine such bans between March and May 2026, describing them as part of an escalating criminalization of organizations providing information, support and assistance to LGBT people. The Alliance’s case was still pending when Human Rights Watch published its assessment on 28 May.
An investigation by The Insider, published shortly before the Alliance was banned in June, examined the “expert assessment” used in the case and in proceedings against other LGBT organizations. It showed how ordinary advocacy, educational materials, criticism of legislation and LGBT-related events were interpreted by state-appointed experts as evidence of “extremism.”
The Alliance is among the latest organizations to have its ban upheld on appeal.
Background links:
The Insider, 22 June 2026:
Going to extremes: Russian authorities’ persecution of the LGBT community has entered the realm of the absurd
https://theins.press/en/
Human Rights Watch, 28 May 2026:
Russia: LGBT Rights Groups Further Criminalized
https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/
Media contacts: E-mail: all4equalityrussia@gmail.com,