Three Russian gay activists are due to appear in court next Friday after being arrested in Siberia's Arkangelsk city on Wednesday.

Nikolay Alekseev, Alexey Kiselev and Kirill Nepomnyaschiy were arrested when they mounted individual pickets in defiance of the 'Propaganda of Homosexuality to Minors' law passed last month by the regional parliament.

Earlier in the day, two of the men had also unfurled a 20m rainbow flag outside a government building in the town.

Police officers told the activists they were called by employees of the children's library where the trio were protesting.

Alekseev said: 'Our arrests show that such laws are enforced against gay activists in contradiction with what Russian officials told European diplomats recently when they wanted to cool down the issue, arguing that the laws had only a symbolic value.'

A judge will hear the case on January 20.  If found guilty, the activists face fines between 1,500 to 2,000 rubles each.

In the last two months, Arkangelsk’s City Hall banned a series of events in support of LGBT rights by the same activists in the regional capital because there was a risk it could be viewed by minors.

'It is no longer possible to advocate LGBT rights in Arkhangelsk in the public place' added Alekseev.

'This law is not here to protect children but instead to silence LGBT people.'

The activists’ arrests is the first application of the law prohibiting so-called promotion of homosexuality to minors in the Arkhangelsk region.

In 2009, two activists from rights group GayRussia were arrested in Ryazan and faced similar charges.

Currently, Arkhangelsk and Ryazan are the two Russian regions to outlaw propaganda of homosexuality to minors.

St Petersburg and Kostroma, where the Regional Parliaments have adopted similar laws in preliminary hearings, are the next to follow.

Several MPs in Moscow expressed the desire to draft a similar bill.

'If it continues like that, we expect that by the end of this year 20% of Russians, approximately 30 million people, will live in areas where advocating LGBT rights in the public place will be illegal,' said Alekseev.

After the arrest on Wednesday, the activists were taken to the Lomonosov district police station, where they were held for four hours, during which they were interrogated and notified of the charges.

Alekseev says their arrest demonstrates that the police intend to make use of the new law whenever necessary.

A previous picket last month in Arkhangelsk protesting the law saw no arrests.