Russia has slapped the international travel site Booking.com with an approximately $70,000 fine (6 million rubles) for violating the country’s so-called gay propaganda law.
The court of Moscow reportedly handed down two three-million-ruble fines to the company in response to a newsletter sent to foreign partner hotels that contained information on housing LGBTQ+ tourists for Pride Month events.
Putin initially passed its propaganda law in 2013, banning propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations directed at children. In 2022, Russia’s Duma expanded the law to include all ages, criminalizing any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books, or advertising.
Then, in 2023, the country took it a step further, with the Supreme Court deeming the international LGBTQ+ movement an extremist organization.
