More than 50 people detained after two gay clubs raided by armed police in Moscow

More than 50 people have been detained by police in Moscow after raids at two gay clubs, Russian-language media has reported.

Russian Telegram channels MSK1 and Shot shared images and videos of staff and patrons at Central Station and Three Monkeys being forced by masked, armed police officers to lie on the floor and stand with their hands against the wall while being frisked.

One video shows dozens of shocked individuals on the dancefloor being shouted at by police and forced to lie down. In another, three individuals are seen with their hands on a wall with an officer pushing one of them and kicking their legs apart.

The raid was part of the “fight against drug trafficking”, according to information in the MSK1 post.

“Law enforcement officers asked visitors if they had drugs on them and if they had used them that evening,” the post reads. “Fragments from broken glasses were scattered everywhere, and alcohol was spilled on the floor.

“Some visitors were lying face down on the floor, while others were standing, facing the wall, with their hands behind their heads.”

Shot also claimed the raid was to search for the “presence of prohibited substances and drugs” but noted that patrons were attending events for National Coming Out Day, which is celebrated worldwide every 11 October.

In another post, Shot alleged that the venues were raided following complaints from members of the public who said “all sorts of indecencies” happened at the venues, including “half-naked men dressed as women dancing around the stage, and guy guests kiss each other freely”.

The channel reported outrage that, despite Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, people in bars, who the channel referred to as “transvestites,” “openly joke” about the Russia-Ukraine war.

A third Russian Telegram channel, for online newspaper Mash, reported that the clubs, which it called “abodes of debauchery”, were closed down by police for “discrediting the Russian armed forces”, claiming drag artists “laughed at the military and parodied the airborne forces from the stage.”

The raids mark yet another attack on Russia’s embattled queer population, who experience abuse, prejudice and state-sanctioned discrimination under the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law and legislation that defines the so-called international public LGBT movement, an extremist organisation.

In recent months, a number of gay venues have been raided by police and staff members arrested.

The crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in the country has also resulted in language-learning app Duolingo being investigated by the Russian media watchdog for allegedly spreading “LGBT propaganda” by mentioning, in English exercises, the words “gay” and “lesbian”.

A spokesperson for Duolingo said the US-based company supports “LGBTQ+ rights and believes in normalising LGBTQ+ representation in our content”, adding: “Unfortunately, local laws prohibit us from including certain content in Russia.”

The company has since removed LGBTQ+ content from its Russian app.

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