ST. PETERSBURG, September 26 - RAPSI. The St. Petersburg Statutory Court has dismissed the complaint of Nikolai Alexeyev, the founder of an advocacy organization focused on the rights of sexual and gender minorities, who requested an examination on whether the law banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors corresponds to St. Petersburg city charter, according to the court's website.

The LGBT rights organization stated online that by adopting this law legislators have violated Article 8(3) of the city's charter on ethnic equality, freedom of consciousness, and beliefs. Alexeyev holds that the legislature has "broken St. Petersburg's unshakeable traditions" which the article protected.

"St. Petersburg Statutory Court Judge Timofeyev announced his refusal because he, as a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, on November 16, 2011 voted in favor of the law disputed by the applicant. The hearing of Nikolai Alexeyev's appeal cannot be held as there is no quorum," the court's report reads.

The court's press secretary told RIA Novosti that since there are only four judges with the St. Petersburg Statutory Court and one of them has announced his refusal to proceed, the complaint cannot be considered.

In May, a magistrate's court fined Alexeyev for holding a poster quoting famous Soviet actress Faina Ranevskaya as saying: "Homosexuality is not a perversion, field hockey and ice ballet are."

The bill setting fines for "gay propaganda" came into force in St. Petersburg on March 30. It faced heavy criticism from the LGBT community and rights activists in Russia and abroad, but it has also been proposed that it should be made into a federal law.

Currently, any citizen who breaches the law in St. Petersburg may be subject to pay a fine for an administrative violation.