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A Russian court has fined a local news agency and one of its directors thousands of dollars for a review that it posted on the smash hit series Heated Rivalry, which Russian lawmakers consider LGBTQ+ propaganda.
The fines, which were first reported by the independent Russian news site Mediazona and confirmed by CBC News, were levied this week after a review of the queer hockey series was published by SaratovBusinessConsulting, which runs a website covering entertainment and news.
A press officer for the Oktyabrsky District Court in Saratov, a city about 800 kilometres southeast of Moscow, told CBC News the review featured a link that included information on how the show could be streamed. The article went up in February and has since been taken down.
The press officer confirmed to CBC that the fines were laid because the series is considered LGBTQ+ propaganda.
The news agency running the site was fined 500,000 rubles, which is the equivalent of more than $9,000 Cdn. A director of the agency was fined 50,000 rubles, or about $900 Cdn.
Thousands of Russian fans
Heated Rivalry, which was produced for Bell Media’s streaming platform, Crave, and airs on HBO Max in the U.S., can only be watched in Russia through a VPN or on pirated sites.
Despite the viewing restrictions, the show has a large fan following in Russia, with tributes and fan content popping up on social media.
According to Mediazona, the review focused on why the series had become so popular. CBC News was unable to read the review because it has been pulled off the website.
On Kinopoisk, a Russian version of the Internet Movie Database, votes from more than 60,000 fans have given Heated Rivalry a rating of 8.3 out of 10.
The series revolves around the steamy relationship between Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov and Canadian hockey player Shane Hollander.
One of the plot points in this series revolves around Rozanov’s fear that he wouldn’t be able to return to Russia if he came out publicly as gay.
Russian fans of the series previously told CBC News that the show resonated with them because of Rozanov’s personal struggles .
Russian LGBTQ+ bans
Russia has a sweeping ban on anything the government deems LGBTQ+ propaganda.
The legislation, which was expanded and signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022, prohibits the dissemination of information about LGBTQ+ people in the media, along with any material that promotes what Russian lawmakers consider “non-traditional” relationships.
Under this law, books and films have been pulled from shelves and off streaming sites. In 2024, Russian media reported on a list of banned books that had been circulating among retailers, including works by Oscar Wilde and Haruki Murakami.
That same year, Russia’s media regulator stopped websites from offering pirated streams of Brokeback Mountain.
Russia has also declared what it considers the LGBTQ+ movement an “extremist organization” and has convicted individuals of posting images of the Pride flag.
