The leader of Russia’s controversial anti-LGBT, anti-feminist group ‘Male State’ had said he won’t pay a penny towards lawsuits filed by a chain of Japanese restaurants, after a court ruled it was an ‘extremist’ organization.
On Thursday, Vladislav Pozdnyakov said that, despite the lawsuits filed against him and his group by the sushi franchise Tanuki, he would not hand over any money by way of reparations.
The company made two claims against Pozdnyakov after he encouraged the supporters of ‘Male State’ to call in fake food orders and engage in other forms of ‘protest’ after the firm displayed black models and purported LGBT+ symbols in their marketing materials, leaving the restaurant 158,000 rubles (about $2,246) out of pocket.
In August, Male State’s leader also told supporters to go after companies that promoted “non-traditional” ideas, targeting the YobiDoyobi sushi chain, after it featured a black man surrounded by white women in an advert. In addition, the group also attacked grocery store chain VkusVill for a promotional video featuring a lesbian couple.
Also on rt.com Far-right anti-LGBT group Male State banned in Russia after court brands group ‘extremist’ amid string of harassment campaigns“After ‘Male State’ was recognized as an extremist organization, it is logical that all the funding that goes to support the group and any posts, finances extremist activities. Therefore, we applied for a probe into its financial flows in order to block access to these payments,” the Marketing Director of Tanuki, Stanislav Koloskov, said.
Despite the restaurant only asking for the money back that they did not receive from the frivolous orders placed by Male State members, its leader says that he will not cough up the cash, claiming that he was not responsible for the fake food requests made at the chains in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.
Pozdnyakov insists that he has no money and his bank accounts have been drained dry. He claims that he placed orders in four separate Russian cities, but not in Nizhny Novgorod. According to him, when he was told that the company could not allocate a black courier to his order, he refused to collect them.
Earlier in October, a court hearing in the Russian city, which Pozdnyakov did not attend, designated Male State as an ‘extremist’ organization and banned its activities across the country, after its supporters targeted women, businesses, and minority groups online.
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