By Brody Levesque | MOSCOW, RUSSIA -- Russian Interior Ministry Troops and Moscow Special Tactical Militia [ Police ] Officers arrested 34 people during an unauthorised Gay Pride parade in the centre of the Russian capital Saturday.
Moscow police spokesman, Maxim Kolosvetov, told Russian news agencies 18 gay activists as well as 16 counter-demonstrators were arrested near Manezhnaya Square and Aleksandrovsky Garden, a short distance from the Kremlin. Kolosvetov also noted that separate groups of Ultra-Orthodox Christians and anti-gay demonstrators also fought with the Gay Rights activists as well as with police and the ministry troops. According to Kolosvetov, individuals were not targeted due to their sexual-orientation.
American LGBT rights activist Andy Thayer from Chicago along with his fellow American LGBT rights activist from New York City, Dan Choi, have been confirmed as having been arrested, along with prominent British LGBT activist Peter Tatchell as well as French gay rights advocate Louis-Georges Tin. Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of Russia’s gay rights movement, did not attend, having suffered an injury to his foot during a television debate Thursday.
Alekseev, who had organised today's protest in defiance of a ban imposed by the Moscow city authorities, told various media outlets that the attempted demonstration at Manezhnaya Square was aimed at connecting gay rights with the Soviet Union's stand against Germany in World War II, which remains a cornerstone of Russian national pride.
"The demonstration ban is particularly shocking because during the Second World War, Muscovites stood against the Nazis who thought to exterminate Jews, homosexuals and Communists, but now the mayor of Moscow is colluding with new-Nazis," said Peter Tatchell, a British LGBT equality rights activist who has taken part in several previous demonstration attempts in Moscow.
The city officials had denied gay rights activists permission to stage a parade on May 28, referring to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of November 4, 1950.
The convention states that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly can be restricted in the interests of public order and protection of the rights and freedoms of other people.
Although homosexuality was decriminalised in post-Soviet Russia, anti-gay sentiment is high and Russian authorities justify the bans on the grounds of trying to prevent fights. Activists also tried to hold a demonstration at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier outside the Kremlin and later outside the mayor's office.
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UPDATE: According to Russian Interior Ministry Officials, all of the protestors that participated in the unauthorised LGBT demonstrations were released as of 6PM Moscow Time.
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