Russian police arrest international gay rights campaigners

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

MOSCOW (AFP) - International gay rights supporters were arrested at a demonstration outside the Moscow mayor's office Sunday and also assaulted by ultra-nationalists and Orthodox Church hardliners.

Police detained Russian gay community leader Nikolai Alexeyev and several others in central Moscow at the start of the demonstration by dozens of homosexual rights activists.

Dozens of Russian ultra-nationalist extremists converged on the group, throwing eggs and punching and kicking gay demonstrators before riot police moved in to separate the two sides.

Also detained were veteran British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell; Volker Beck, a member of Germany's parliament; and Marco Cappato, an Italian member of the European Parliament.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070527/wl_afp/russiagaysdemo_070527153706

[shenmue]

1. They're doing so much better now

Much better than the old days with the secret police...

:sarcasm:

[mooseprime]

2. i understand your sentiment

but my work takes me to russia a lot, i am an american who grew up here and went to grad school there during the soviet years. i have to tell you today's russia is far more open minded and free than today's america. yes they're still more prehistoric than the u.s. is about gay rights, but they have a much greater distance to come.

[David__77]

3. I sympathize with the Russian gay rights activists.

But I do think it would be very wise for them to distance themselves from foreign activists. As long as the authorities can peg the movement as "foreign-controlled," Russian mainstream opinion will reject their cause as alien to Russia.