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Saratov Court #homophobia novayagazeta.eu

A court in the southern Russian city of Saratov has fined a local media outlet for distributing "LGBT propaganda" after it published a review of the Canadian television series Heated Rivalry.

The news agency SaratovBusinessConsulting was ordered to pay 500,000 rubles (€5,600), according to Mediazona, which cited the court's press service. The offending article, titled "Why Did 'Heated Rivalry' Become Popular?” was published on February 6 and has since been deleted from the outlet's website.

A second misdemeanour case under the same statute was brought against the agency's IT director, Andrey Bashkaikin, who was fined 50,000 rubles (€560).

An unnamed employee of the agency told Mediazona that the case stemmed from what they described as a "harmless review" of the series. "There's a certain series that's currently being widely discussed," the employee said. "The article came from a third-party content provider. It was published for a short time, but we quickly removed it."

Heated Rivalry premiered on the Canadian streaming platform Crave and on HBO Max in the United States in November 2025. Based on the Game Changers book series by author Rachel Reid, the show follows a secret romance between two professional hockey players: Russian star Ilya Rozanov and Canadian Shane Hollander.

Russia introduced a sweeping ban on so-called "LGBT propaganda" in November 2022, broadening a law that had previously only restricted the promotion of “non-traditional sexual relationships” to minors.

Anatoly Torkunov, Vyacheslav Nikonov and Sergey Devyatov #wingnut #conspiracy novayagazeta.eu

Starting from 1 September, Russian schoolchildren will be taught using a new curriculum that will see the return of basic military training and the introduction of new textbooks for both history and social studies[…]

The West became obsessed with destabilising the situation inside Russia, initially along its borders. For this, they sponsored outright Russophobia in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The next stage in their plan was to draw Russia into a series of conflicts and “colour revolutions”[…]

Above is an excerpt from the new history textbook[…]One of the co-authors of the course is Vladimir Medinsky, the country’s former minister of culture[…]
In July, excerpts from the new textbook on Russian history[…]Claims that if not for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “it could potentially have been the end of the civilisation”

Russia’s educational institutions are to use a single federal curriculum that uses just one textbook for almost every subject[…]
One education policy expert who spoke to Novaya-Europe on condition of anonymity said that the publishing house in question now enjoys a monopoly in the Russian textbook market, just as it did during the Soviet era[…]
There are two further books on Russia’s most recent history included in the new curriculum. Excerpts from one of them, written by Vyacheslav Nikonov and Sergey Devyatov, were recently leaked by the media

The book claims that the US and “its European vassals” have been using Ukraine as “a fist aimed at Russia” and a “stepping stone for a NATO attack”, so Russia was “forced to take preventive measures”[…]Chapter on the “special military operation” ends with a WWII-era Soviet slogan: “Our cause is just! The enemy will be routed! We shall prevail!”

Federation Council and State Duma of Russia, Taymuraz Mamsurov and Pyotr Tolstoy #transphobia #conspiracy novayagazeta.eu

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s Parliament, has unanimously approved the controversial bill banning gender transition in Russia[…]
“If we’re being vilified and criticised, it means we’re doing everything right,” the North Ossetia senator Taymuraz Mamsurov said during the session. He added, “let them have their gay parades over there while we celebrate Victory Day over here”

The speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko said that she had looked up the reaction of the foreign media on this bill — according to her, the articles she saw had positive reactions

The next and final step is Russian President Vladimir Putin signing the bill[…]
The bill seeks to ban gender reassignment surgery and hormonal treatment except in cases of “congenital physiological deviations”. It will also prohibit changes to official documents on the basis of medical “sex change” certificates

The bill will allow to annul marriages in cases when one or both spouses undergoes a “sex change”. The amendment will be retroactive, rendering invalid those marriages where one or both spouses had transitioned before the law’s introduction

A further amendment will prohibit couples, where one of the partners has undergone a “sex change”, from adopting children. Moreover, persons who have undergone a transition abroad will be unable to receive Russian documents listing the correct gender identity. This amendment will not be retroactive — there are no plans to take back the children adopted by transgender people

On 14 July, the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s Parliament, approved the bill in the third, final reading

In June, Russian lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt the bill in the first reading. Nearly 400 MPs are listed as the bill’s authors. “Why are we doing this? By hindering Western anti-family ideology, we are saving Russia for future generations — with its family and cultural values and traditions,” said Pyotr Tolstoy, one of the authors