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Gaga promoter fined in Russia over “gay propaganda”
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 19 November 2013
A court in St Petersburg has fined the promoters of a Lady Gaga show that took place in the Russian city last year under Russia’s controversial “blame it on the gays” law.
As previously reported, Gaga’s show was criticised almost immediately last December, with local political figures accusing the singer of breaching rules that ban the “promotion” of homosexuality in the presence of minors. The anti-gay laws originated in St Petersburg but have since been extended across Russia.
In the end it was a complaint by an audience member that took the matter legal. Nadezhda Petrova, who took her thirteen year old daughter to the show, said that Gaga exposed her child to an imitation of sexual intercourse between women and advocacy of alcohol consumption.
Ruling on the complaint, the judge hearing the case said that promoter Planeta Plus had indeed broken the law by failing to protect children from “information that could harm their health and/or development”. Though the firm was only fined 20,000 rubles, just under £400.
That said, local media report that the ruling could now leave Planeta Plus open to civil litigation by Nadezhda, which could result in the live firm being forced to pay much higher damages directly to the aggrieved audience member. Reports suggest that the political group thought to really be behind Nadezhda’s complaint is already plotting such legal action.
Either way, Planeta Plus has confirmed that it will appeal this ruling, adding that the new laws are likely to result in an increasing number of Western artists refusing to play in the city because, while liability for legal claims can presumably be averted by instituting eighteen-plus age restrictions on all shows, an increasing number of acts are nervous of performing there for political reasons.
According to Billboard, Yevgeny Filkenstein from the Russian live firm told NTV-Petersburg: “We don’t agree with this verdict because no one listened to us. [Moreover] because of these laws against gay propaganda adopted here, because of these cheap publicity tricks, all viewers suffer. Just recently, Peter Gabriel, who has never performed in Russia, refused to come because of this law and because he supported Pussy Riot”.
