TYUMEN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2023) Russia's Tyumen Central District Court has ruled in favor of a case filed by a local prosecutor's office to invalidate a same-sex marriage due to gender reassignment by one of the spouses.
The prosecution established that a 33-year-old married man changed his surname, first name, patronymic and gender. With this regard, a local prosecutor filed a lawsuit to invalidate the marriage, since "according to the Russian Family Code, the regulation of family relations is carried out in accordance with the principle of the voluntary union of a man and a woman."
The civil case was heard during a closed court session, and the judge ruled to dissolve the marriage after a debate involving representatives of the prosecutor's registry offices, while the defendants were represented at the meeting by lawyer Pavel Rusnakov.
"The claims of the prosecutor's office have been satisfied, the court declared the marriage invalid from September 29, 2022, when a document on gender reassignment was issued," Rusnakov told Sputnik.
Rusnakov added that he would file an appeal against the court's decision after finding out the principals' stance and familiarizing himself with the text of the court ruling.
Russia recognizes neither same-sex marriage nor any other form of civil union for same-sex couples. The 2020 Russian constitutional referendum officially enshrined exclusively heterosexual marriage in the country's basic law.
