Yulia Tsvetkova
- Criminal Code
- Article 242 part 3 item b, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 330.1 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
- Verdict
- Fine
- Date of verdict
- 2026-03-24
- Region
- Khabarovsk Krai
- City
- Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Case summary
Resident of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, artist. In March 2019, Tsvetkova was reported to the police because of the activities of her theatre MERAK, in which minors play; the teenagers were interviewed by the police. An activist festival she had organised was cancelled. Tsvetkova was summoned to the police because of a body-positive project. On 20 November Tsvetkova was questioned as a suspect in a case of pornography production in connection with the administration of the body-positive blog "Vagina Monologues". The case was opened on the application of a well-known homophobe Timur Bulatov, who regularly writes statements against LGBT-activists. Tsvetkova was given a covenant not to leave the country and her flat was searched. On 22 November Tsvetkova was detained on her way to Blagoveshchensk, declaring that she had violated her covenant not to leave. The next day the court placed her under house arrest. A minor actor of the MERAK theatre was forced to recognise himself as a victim. In January 2020 Tsvetkova was banned from seeing a doctor, in February - a dentist. Later, permission to visit the dentist was obtained. On 16 March, the court released Tsvetkova on her own recognisance.
On 13 December 2019, a magistrate judge fined Tsvetkova 50,000 rubles under an administrative article on propaganda of "non-traditional sexual relations among minors with the use of the Internet" for publishing posts on social media criticising violations of LGBT rights. The statement was also apparently written by Bulatov. On 17 January 2020, it became known that Tsvetkova was subject to another administrative protocol under this article for the picture "Family is where the love is. Support LGBT+ families."
On 3 June 2022 Tsvetkova was included in the register of mass media - "foreign agents".
On 15 July, the court acquitted Tsvetkova. On 28 March 2023, the cassation court overturned this decision and returned the case to the court of first instance. Tsvetkova left Russia, after which she was put on a wanted list and arrested in absentia.
She was also prosecuted for evasion of her duties as a "foreign agent". In November 2025, the case came to court and was transferred under jurisdiction. On 24 March 2026 Tsvetkova was sentenced in absentia to a fine, the amount is unknown.
Others charged under Article 242 part 3 item b, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
Recent material from this section. This is section navigation — the articles below are not about this person.
- 2026-09-04Georgia court clears extradition of Fugal ally to Russia
- 2026-09-04Russia labels Novaya Gazeta a 'foreign agent,' adds over 100 affiliated names
- 2026-09-04Russian court sentences hostage-takers from Rostov detention center to up to 29 years
- 2026-09-04Two Yabloko Duma candidates detained in Moscow two days before vote
- 2026-09-03British man says Russian police beat him, jumped on his head at station in Yessentuki
Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database
Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.