The Interregional Public Movement, the largest Russian LGBT Network, has suggested to Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev that he initiates legislation to amend the penal law of Russia to make hate crimes cover lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transpeople. If these amendments were to pass, the courts would have to consider whether a crime specifically targeted a person based upon sexual orientation or gender identity.

Igor Kochetkov (Petrov), the chairman of the Interregional Public Movement, The Russian LGBT Network stated “State and society should be equally intolerant towards attempts to incite hate and hostility towards all the minorities – racial, national, religious or sexual. Recently we have witnessed numerous unreasonably lenient sentences to those who killed people only because they didn’t like sexual orientation of the victim. Besides the investigating authorities and the courts do not respond to public appeals to isolation, treatment and even extermination of homosexual people. Such practice must be abolished at legislative level.”

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