Russian Court Fines Company and Director for Posting Review of LGBTQ+ Themed Series

# Russian Court Imposes Fines for Review of Canadian Series A Russian court fined SaratovBusinessConsulting 500,000 rubles for posting a review of the series Heated Rivalry. A director of SaratovBusinessConsulting was fined 50,000 rubles for the same review. The fines were levied this week in the Oktyabrsky District Court in Saratov.

The review was published by SaratovBusinessConsulting in February. It has been taken down from the SaratovBusinessConsulting website. The review featured a link that included information on how Heated Rivalry could be streamed.

The fines were imposed under Russia's 2022 law banning LGBTQ+ propaganda, as stated by the Oktyabrsky District Court press officer. Saratov is located about 800 kilometres southeast of Moscow. 500,000 rubles is equivalent to more than $9,000 Cdn, and 50,000 rubles is equivalent to about $900 Cdn.

Background on Heated Rivalry Heated Rivalry was produced for Bell Media's streaming platform Crave.

U.S. Heated Rivalry can only be watched in Russia through a VPN or on pirated sites. 3 out of 10 on Kinopoisk. The series revolves around the relationship between Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov and Canadian hockey player Shane Hollander.

The series includes a plot where the Russian character fears repercussions for publicly coming out as gay, reflecting themes of the story's international hockey rivalry.

Russian Law on LGBTQ+ Material Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law in 2022 a ban on material the government deems LGBTQ+ propaganda.

The 2022 law prohibits the dissemination of information about LGBTQ+ people in the media. The 2022 law prohibits material that promotes what Russian lawmakers consider “non-traditional” relationships. In 2024, Russian media reported on a list of banned books circulating among retailers, including works by Oscar Wilde and Haruki Murakami.