In February, Vladimir Kushnerik, a 43-year-old church watchman, filed a complaint with the police against two queer bloggers, Haoyan Xu and Gela Gogishvili. As reported by the Holod publication, Haoyan was arrested in April and detained for seven days under the charge of LGBT propaganda, and was threatened with deportation back to China.
Vladimir Kushnerik, who is a watchman at an Altai church, filed a complaint against Haoyan Xu, a Chinese queer blogger who was later arrested. This happened on February 28, and the police discovered that Xu had uploaded 19 videos on his YouTube channel that depicted "non-traditional sexual relations with Gela Gogishvili," his boyfriend. According to the police, the videos showed the couple kissing, embracing, and touching each other in various ways, including their genitals.
It was also discovered that around 1,800 minors were subscribed to their channel, though the couple had labeled all their social media accounts as 18+.
In April, Haoyan Xu was detained by the police at a Burger King in Kazan while they were checking his passport details. He was arrested for violating the LGBT propaganda law and arrested for seven days. The court subsequently ordered his deportation from Russia. Gela Gogishvili, Haoyan's boyfriend, claimed that the police made racist and homophobic remarks to Xu, including giving him polluted water for drinking and denying him food.
Following the controversy surrounding Haoyan Xu's arrest, another similar case was reported in Kamchatka. A court there fined a German citizen 150,000 rubles ($1,834) and expelled him from Russia for promoting "information about non-traditional relationships and preferences" to another user on the internet.