ABSTRACT Gender-affirming care and legal gender recognition (LGR) have been relatively well developed in Russia since Soviet times. During the past decade, in line with the general authoritarian and conservative turn, transgender (trans) rights have increasingly come under attack. In 2023, anti-trans forces succeeded in bringing about the adoption of a law that prohibited gender-affirming care and LGR, preventing marriage and adoption of children for trans people. This article uses the Authoritarian Gender Equality Policy Making framework to understand the structural opportunities, actors, framings, and the autocrat’s signaling that led to this result. The policy reversal resulted from increased visibility of trans issues in Russia and worldwide coupled with their reframing from a medical problem to a geopolitical threat in the context of a military and cultural confrontation with the West following Russia’s “special military operation” against Ukraine in February 2022.