Moscow:

Russia on Monday arrested a medic for “Satanism” and “promoting same-sex relationships”, as Moscow intensifies a legal crackdown on LGBTQ rights, in defence of what it calls “traditional family values”.

Moscow has for years created a hostile environment for LGBTQ people, a trend it hugely accelerated since sending troops to Ukraine in 2022. 

The powerful FSB security service said it had arrested the head of a medical institution in the central Ulyanovsk region, accusing him of “devil worshipping”. 

Such accusations from state authorities are rare, but the influence of the Orthodox Church has steadily risen as Russia takes an increasingly conservative social turn. 

“In the course of operational searches, it was established that this person, being a supporter of Satanism, promoted the idea of same-sex relations among subordinate employees as a way of initiating them into devil worshipping,” the FSB said.

It said the man had “misled citizens into believing that it was necessary to adopt the cult in order to gain financial prosperity and achieve career advancement”.  

It said a criminal case has been opened over coercion to engage in sexual acts and participate in an extremist organisation.  

The FSB published a video of the man being arrested in his apartment and led away by masked men in camouflage uniform.

Russia banned what it called the “international LGBT movement” in November last year.  

It ranks last place — 48th — in a European ranking of countries’ laws and policies that have a direct impact on LGBTQ people.  

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)