A decision by a court in Russia’s second biggest city to designate the Russian LGBT Network an “extremist organization” and impose a nationwide ban on its activities will only increase the marginalization of LGBTI people and their human rights, Amnesty International said today. The verdict by the St Petersburg City Court followed closed hearings as requested by the Ministry of Justice and was issued within two months of similar rulings designating four other LGBTI groups: Coming Out in St Petersburg, the LGBT Resource Centre in Yekaterinburg, Moscow Community Centre for LGBT+ Initiatives, LGBTI group Irida in Samara, and LGBTI-themed media project Parni+ as “extremist organizations.” “When in November 2023 the Supreme Court banned the non-existent ‘international LGBT movement’ as ‘extremist,’ it was clear that the authorities would not stop there.…