A century-old bookstore in St Petersburg is the latest business to run afoul of Russian’s ‘LGBT propaganda’ laws. A judge has ordered Podpisniye Izdaniya to pay a fine of 800,000 rubles, around AUD$15,600.
The bookstore reportedly copped the fine for stocking works by a range of authors including Susan Sontag and Oliver Laing. When police searched the bookshop in April they were ordered to remove 48 titles.
The ruling comes as authorities crackdown on independent bookstores and publishers across the country.
Last week US tech giant Apple was ordered to pay a fine of 10.5 million rubles, which is the equivalent of $202,860 Australian dollars. The fines relate to four cases brought against the US technology brand.
Russia made it illegal for depictions of homosexuality, same sex relationships and other non-traditional relationships being viewed by minors back in 2013. But in 2022 the laws were updated to apply for all ages, and the international LGBT movement was proclaimed a terrorist movement.
The raids of the book store have also included books about feminism and anything falling under the category of gender studies.
