MOSCOW — Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday banned the "international LGBT movement" for extremism in the midst of the country's conservative turn, paving the way for legal action against any group defending LGBT+ rights in the country.

Judge Oleg Nefedov ordered that "the international LGBT movement and its subsidiaries be recognized as extremist and their activities banned from the territory of the Russian Federation", according to AFP correspondents on the ground.

Nefedov said that the ban would come into force "immediately".

The hearing took place without defence counsel, as no organization bearing the name "international LGBT movement" exists in Russia, and behind closed doors as the case was classified as "secret".

In mid-November, the Russian Ministry of Justice called for the "international LGBT movement" to be described as an "extremist organization" and banned, without clearly saying which organization it was targeting.

Any public activity associated with what Russia considers to be "non-traditional" sexual preferences could now be deemed "extremism", a crime punishable by heavy prison sentences.

Until now, LGBT+ people risked heavy fines if they engaged in what the authorities called "propaganda", but not imprisonment.

In recent years, Russian politicians have increasingly referred to homosexuals as "paedophiles" and claimed they are part of an insidious attempt to "westernise" Russian society.

The situation is particularly dire in the Caucasus republic of Chechnya, where gay men in particular face imprisonment and torture at the hands of police. — Euronews