A Russian photographer and stylist has been sentenced to hard labour for writing gay fanfiction about a K-Pop boy band, in the latest case of Kremlin's clampdown on LGBT rights.
Details of the Case
Alexandra Kuzyk, 36, was arrested last year and charged with producing illegal pornography after she published stories online about fictional sexual relationships involving the South Korean pop group Stray Kids. She admitted the offence after prosecutors in Yekaterinburg pushed for a four-year prison sentence, saying she wrote fanfiction as a hobby.
Last week, a judge sentenced her to 18 months of compulsory labour, with 10% of her earnings withheld by the state. The case was launched nearly a year ago after a woman found same-sex fanfiction written by Kuzyk in 2022 on her underage daughter's device.
Police seized books and electronics from Kuzyk's home in the Beloyarsky District, including two laptops, an iPad, two smartphones, and 20 CDs. Kuzyk told LGBT group Parni+ that she was not publishing or selling any stories when the investigation began. She said the woman discovered her daughter's Telegram channel subscriptions and took screenshots of LGBTQ+-related posts and sexual scenes from the fanfiction on Fikbook, sending them to Roskomnadzor.
Law enforcement also found fanfiction about "non-traditional love" written by Kuzyk online. On a fanfiction site, she wrote about her investigation: "The first examination began on November 23. There were no printed versions of my fics at the time. I don't want to scare you, but the denunciation was written against an electronic version of a 'mediocre' fanfic. The fact that I wasn't publishing or selling anything at the time didn't save me."
Broader Crackdown on LGBT Rights
Compulsory labour sentences are increasingly handed down by Russian courts as part of the Kremlin's clampdown on LGBT rights. Vladimir Putin's ban on promoting "nontraditional sexual relationships" to children in 2014 has since widened to involve any mention of these topics. In November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court designated the "LGBT movement" as extremist, criminalising active support.
Last year, Mark Kislitsyn, a 28-year-old transgender man and volunteer for a Russian LGBT support initiative, was sentenced to 12 years for "high treason" after donating $10 to a Ukrainian bank. In March, a court in Chita, Eastern Siberia, sentenced 23-year-old nightclub owner Tatiana Zorina to four years in a penal colony for "organising the activities of an extremist organization" for running a venue where LGBT events were held.
Meanwhile, bar manager Diana Kamilyanova and art director Alexander Klimov face up to ten years in prison for allegedly staging and filming drag performances. In March 2026, the government added them to its federal list of "terrorists and extremists".
Last month, Russian authorities raided the Moscow offices of Eksmo, one of the country's largest book publishers, over "LGBT propaganda" found in the back catalogue of Popcorn Books, a youth-oriented imprint they had acquired. The general director and several employees were taken away for questioning.
