Russian Women Fined $1,000 Over Restaurant Kiss

Two women in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region have been fined 50,000 rubles ($550) each for kissing each other on camera, the regional court’s press service said Tuesday.

In early February, a police report was filed against the women, whose names were not given, after they were filmed kissing each other at a restaurant. 

Law enforcement authorities pressured them to apologize for their actions on camera.

“I apologize to all those who thought we supported LGBT. We’re against this idea,” one of the women said in a video.

A Kransodar lower court found the two women, ages 19 and 24, guilty of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations and preferences.”

According to the independent news outlet Mediazona, 50,000 rubles is the minimum fine for those charges. 

Neither of the two women attended Tuesday’s court hearing.