Moscow court rules ads offering housing only to Muslims illegal

The Savelovsky District Court of Moscow has ruled that advertisements offering housing exclusively to Muslims are illegal, the text of the court decision reads.

“Information disseminated via the Internet at the electronic addresses [links to the Telegram posts deemed illegal] is recognised as information whose distribution is prohibited in the Russian Federation. The decision is subject to immediate enforcement,” the ruling said, Caliber.Az reports per TASS.

According to the case materials, two posts were published on a thematic Telegram channel. One ad offered a one-room apartment near Shchyolkovskaya metro station exclusively to Muslims. Another offered a house for rent in the village of Drozdovo outside Moscow with the note “for Muslims only.” The channel was public, allowing any internet user to view its content.

The posts were discovered by the prosecutor’s office during online monitoring. The authority considered the ads discriminatory on religious grounds and filed an administrative lawsuit demanding the posts be blocked and recognised as prohibited information.

The court upheld the prosecutor’s request.

By Khagan Isayev