Brutal raid on woman's birthday party highlights rise of Russian vigilante group (Russia)16/May/2026

Katya was about to blow out the candles on her 30th birthday cake when masked men burst into the nightclub hired for her party, and began physically and verbally attacking her friends. "They called us faggots and lesbians. I could hear violence from every corner," she told a BBC World Service investigation. Her mother was told to get down on all fours, she says. The swoop was instigated by a vigilante group, called Russkaya Obshina, that wants to accelerate President Vladimir Putin's agenda to stamp out what he describes as Western liberalism, and promote traditional family-orientated values. As is sometimes the case in these raids, members of the police joined them. Russkaya Obshina stated in a subsequent video it shared on social media that it was looking for evidence of LGBT "propaganda", which is illegal in Russia. Nothing of this nature was found, but Katya was nevertheless interrogated by law enforcement. Nine months later she was convicted for blasphemy because there had been a red neon crucifix-shaped light hanging on the wall of the nightclub. #vigilantegroup #russianvigilantes #russia2026