Police raid Moscow’s Open Space community following reports of ‘LGBT propaganda’ among minors

Police have raided the Moscow office of the Open Space (or Otkrytoe Prostranstvo) activist community which is currently holding a festival by the Teens and Cats project, the organisation’s Telegram channel reports.

“The police told us that the reason for their visit was a report on LGBT propaganda among minors. The report was filed by someone named Viktor Mukhin. Katrin Nenasheva, the project’s coordinator, was taken to the Basmanny police station to provide a statement,” the activist community wrote.

The police have left the office by now. They told the minors attending the festival that the Federal Security Service (FSB) would “pay them a visit soon”. So far, no attendees have been detained, and the festival continues.

The festival organised by the Teens and Cats project, founded by teenagers, includes a support group on communicating with the police, a sex education public talk, and art workshops. The police did not specify which part of the festival was mentioned in the report as “LGBT propaganda”.

UPDATED AT 20:00
Artist Katrin Nenasheva says that she is still being held at the police station. The police are pressing charges against her for “LGBT propaganda among minors”.

An issue of the magazine published by the Teens and Cats project was sent to the Russian Investigative Committee for review. The magazine talks about “how to survive if you’re a teenager, what to do if you’re kicked out of your house and how to talk to the police”.

On 14 June, police searched the Moscow office of Open Space following up on the complaint by the SERB pro-government group regarding the exhibition of political prisoners’ artworks dubbed “Autonomous Zone”. Police officers seized all the paintings, posters and documents from the office.

Soon after that, the police came to the house of Darya Soboleva, a volunteer with the project. The search was carried out in relation to a vandalism case regarding an unknown person.

The Moscow office of Open Space later announced that it would suspend its activity.