The leadership of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) demanded that materials containing LGBT and “foreign agents” topics be removed from the library and from the university website. This is reported in its investigation by the "Project", referring to the "memo", which was sent to all departments of the university.
The journalists got acquainted with the document prepared by the leadership. It states that "non-traditional relationships" should be interpreted as broadly as possible, and include "BDSM and swingers" in this topic. You can write about LGBT people if such relationships are condemned. Any controversial content related to LGBT should be removed from the HSE portal, and all books promoting “non-traditional relations” should be removed from the university library. As an example, the book "Summer in a Pioneer Tie" is given.
Materials belonging to “foreign agents” should also be removed from the university website and from online courses, and “foreign agents” themselves should not be invited to events at the university, the authors of the memo note. Separately, the document says that in student stand-ups there may be jokes about gays, but "without a description of such relationships and their propaganda."
The Project notes that it could not establish whether the university had implemented all the requirements, since the HSE press service did not respond to a request.
On December 5, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law completely banning the "propaganda" of non-traditional sexual relations and transgender transition. The document provides for a ban on "propaganda" of "non-traditional relationships", pedophilia and gender reassignment among people of any age on the Internet, media, books, movies and advertising, and introduces fines for citizens – from 50 thousand to 800 thousand rubles, and for legal entities – up to 10 million rubles. Foreigners can now be expelled from Russia for “propaganda” of LGBT people.
After the adoption of the law, bookstores "Respublika" and "Chitai-Gorod" removed from sale some of the books describing "non-traditional relationships." The LitRes service will not only remove books from sale, but also ask authors to rewrite texts so that they can be returned to sale. In January, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein announced that, based on his denunciation, the first case of LGBT “propaganda” against the Popcorn Books publishing house was initiated.
