In Chita, a court increases the sentence of a gay club owner in Russia's first 'LGBT extremism' case

The Zabaykalsky Regional Court has toughened the sentence for Tatiana Zorina, the owner of the Chita-based (a city in the Russian Far East) club “Jackson” (formerly “Tochka”), increasing her prison term from 4 years to 6 years and 2 months in a penal colony. This was reported by Kommersant .

The court also ordered the confiscation of over 766,000 rubles obtained from the establishment’s activities. The rest of the verdict remains unchanged, and information about the case on the court’s website has been classified.

Initially, in March 2026, the Ingodinsky District Court of Chita (a city in the Russian Far East) found 23-year-old Zorina guilty of “organizing the activities of an extremist organization” (Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case was initiated over the operation of the club, which hosted themed parties.

The establishment’s activities were stopped in October 2024 following a raid by law enforcement officers, in which representatives of the “Russian Community” movement (a nationalist group) also participated. Before the first verdict was announced, Tatiana Zorina was under house arrest.

Zorina’s case became the fourth known instance of prosecution under the article on “LGBT extremism.” Previously, similar charges were brought against the management of the Orenburg club Pose, Samara activist Artem Fokin, and entrepreneur Ilya Zhuravlev from Inza.