Swiss court upholds denial of asylum to Russian gay couple
Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court rejected the appeals of Russian nationals Ilia Ageev (Bronskiy) and Dmitrii Kiselev on August 31. The gay couple left Russia in 2021 and later married in Zurich. According to Watson , they have been ordered to leave Switzerland by October 2 after the ruling became final.
The State Secretariat for Migration had denied both men refugee status and asylum on July 1, 2021. In its published judgment in case E-3492/2021 , the court also refers to the second applicant’s linked case, E-3487/2021, in which the appeal was dismissed on the same day.
The couple say they faced homophobia, threats and persecution in Russia. Watson reports that after Ilia spoke publicly in 2021 about living with HIV, he received death threats, had his address exposed, was threatened in the street and was later beaten in central St. Petersburg. Ilia and Dmitrii left for Switzerland soon afterwards. They fear that returning could expose them to criminal prosecution and separation.
The court acknowledged that gay people in Russia face substantial legal restrictions and may, in certain circumstances, incur administrative or criminal penalties for publicly expressing their sexual orientation, engaging in activism or supporting the LGBT community. It nevertheless held that the discrimination experienced by the applicants had not reached the threshold of persecution required for asylum and that no specific present risk to the couple had been established. In the court’s view, their marriage, participation in LGBT and anti-war events in Switzerland and social-media posts had not made them prominent enough for persecution by the Russian authorities to be likely.
Ilia and Dmitrii have filed a hardship residence application with the Migration Office of the Canton of Zurich. Supporters have also launched a petition on the Campax platform , calling on the office to consider the application and suspend their removal. At the time of publication, no decision by the cantonal authority had been reported, and the available sources did not confirm whether the application itself halted enforcement of the departure order.
The ruling comes amid stricter Russian legislation and enforcement targeting LGBT people. In November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the so-called “international LGBT public movement” extremist. Uránia previously reported on a UN special rapporteur’s finding that Russian LGBT people may remain at risk of persecution after emigrating; the Russian authorities reject allegations of systemic human-rights violations.
