The Orenburg Regional Court will review the prison sentences handed down to the owner and employees of the Pose bar. The hearing will be held behind closed doors.
On September 8, an appeal in the Pose bar case will begin in Orenburg—the first criminal case in Russia involving the organization of and participation in the activities of the so-called “international LGBT movement” following its ban by the Supreme Court. The hearing will be closed to the public.
This is the first time that a sentence handed down in such a case will be reviewed by a higher court.
On June 29, Orenburg’s Central District Court handed prison sentences to three defendants. Pose owner Vyacheslav Khasanov was sentenced to seven years in a general-regime penal colony; administrator Diana Kamilyanova received six years and three months, and art director Alexander Klimov received two years and three months. Khasanov was also ordered to forfeit more than one million rubles, which the court deemed proceeds from prohibited activities.
All three pleaded not guilty.
The case began after a raid on Pose in March 2024. The charges were based on the club’s continued operation after the Supreme Court banned the “international LGBT movement.” Investigators and the court described events held there as demonstrations of affiliation with people of “non-traditional sexual orientation.” These included parties and drag shows.
This is precisely why the Pose case proved more significant than the story of a single Orenburg club.
For the first time, the Russian authorities have used this legal construct to secure lengthy prison sentences: the operation of a queer venue, the organization of parties, the selection of performers, and the public presence of LGBT people were all presented as evidence of the activities of an “extremist organization.”
Moreover, there is no legally registered “international LGBT movement” whose membership could be established through conventional means. In November 2023, the Supreme Court designated as extremist what its ruling called the “international LGBT public movement.” The statute criminalizing the organization of and participation in an extremist organization subsequently began to be applied to LGBT activists and queer projects.
The Pose case became the first criminal test of this legal construct—and now, for the first time, it has reached the appeals stage.
The details of the defense's appeals are unknown. Back in July, the court's press office confirmed that the lawyers were challenging the verdict but did not disclose the substance of their arguments.
This will not make the proceedings any more public. The trial court also heard the case almost entirely behind closed doors: local media reported that 50 hearings were closed to the public. The appeal will now also be heard behind closed doors.
Thus, on September 8, the most important question will be answered: whether the regional court will uphold Russia's first conviction in an “LGBT extremism” case or overturn the lower court's decision.
As for the arguments on which this decision will be based, the public may once again see only a heavily abridged version of them.
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