The Russian police have opened proceedings against Dolce & Gabbana after the Italian luxury fashion house posted videos of same-sex couples kissing on Instagram.

The case was brought about after Russian MP Mikhail Romanov of President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party filed a complaint about the adverts.

According to Russian news website ren.tv, he lodged the complaint with the Ministry of Internal Affairs after an offended member of the public reportedly complained about the adverts.

The fashion house posted the videos as part of its ‘Love is Love’ campaign in support of the Trevor Project in February.

The Trevor Project is an American “organisation providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth”.

Homosexuality is legal in Russia. However, a 2013 law dubbed the “gay propaganda law” prohibits the distribution of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors.

The stated purpose for the law, which was met with major international backlash, was to protect children from being exposed to homosexuality.

The St Petersburg courts press service reported that a prosecutor had filed a claim requesting that two specific adverts posted by D&G be banned in Russia on 24th May.

One of the adverts in question shows two girls kissing and the other shows two young men kissing. The case, on which D&G has so far not commented, is currently pending.

According to market and consumer data company Statistia, 43 percent of Russian disagreed with the statement that gays and lesbians in Russia should enjoy the same rights as other citizens.