<<previous  |  index  |  next>>

II. Banned, Beaten, Jailed: the Demonstration of May 27

On May 14, Moscow Pride organizers submitted to Mayor Luzhkov official notification of plans for a human rights march on May 27.

On May 15, Moscow city authorities stated that after a “meeting between city administration officials and the organizers of the gay pride parade,” the latter “received an official refusal for this event … [A] gay pride parade would violate the rights and interests of other citizens, contravening applicable laws.”⁵ Moscow Pride organizers denied that any “meeting” had taken place, or any refusal had been received.

To inaugurate Moscow Pride 2007, a conference on human rights took place at the Moscow Swissotel on May 25-26.  Russian participants were joined by foreign activists from Austria, Belarus, France, Moldova, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries, as well as member of the German Bundestag Volker Beck; member of the Italian Parliament Vladimir Luxuria; and Sophie In’t Veld of the Netherlands and Marco Cappatto of Italy, members of the European Parliament.

On Saturday, May 26, the LGBT Network Russia, Free Radicals, and Green Alternative held a demonstration in Pushkin Square to protest homophobia and xenophobia.  The request to City Hall for authorization had not mentioned homosexuality, and about 15 police protected some 40 demonstrators. 

On the same day, nationalists organized two large protests against Moscow Pride. At Slavyanskaya Square, the ultra-Orthodox “People’s Union” had assembled some 300 people. The independent press reported shouts of “Our ‘scouts’ will be in the center tomorrow. Faggots won’t get through!”  Beside the All-Russian Exhibition Center, a larger crowd gathered, assembled by neo-Nazi groups. Russian National Socialist leader Dmitry Rumiantsev told the audience, “I hear tomorrow there will be some sort of parade. Happy hunting, wolves!”⁶

Originally, organizers of Moscow Pride 2007 had planned a larger-scale march down Tverskaya Street. However, they scaled this back at the last minute. On the day of the planned pride events, May 27, a few LGBT supporters, including Nikolay Alexeyev, Beck, Cappatto, Luxuria, and In’t Veld, planned to approach City Hall on Tverskaya Street at noon with a petition. Signed by 49 European parliamentarians, the petition asked Mayor Luzhkov to permit demonstrations in support of gay rights.

As noon approached around 30 other participants gradually gathered across the street, at Tverskaya Square near the statue of Yuri Dolgoruky. Most were not formally connected with Pride organizers, and many did not know of the organizers’ final plans, but wished to show support. As one told Human Rights Watch, “I knew that some activists were going to demonstrate for lesbian and gay rights, and I simply wanted to take part.”⁷ Those not directly involved with the pride organizers made up the majority of those later arrested.

Representatives of Human Rights Watch and the European Region of the International Gay and Lesbian Association (ILGA-Europe) arriving at Tverskaya square at 11 a.m. found it already barricaded off by Moscow police.  Small groups of skinheads and nationalist extremists began to infiltrate the area around it.

When Pride leaders approached City Hall at noon, a group of homophobic nationalists surrounded them.⁸  Regular and riot police (OMON, Otryad Militsii Osobogo Naznachenya) immediately arrested Nikolay Alexeyev, Nikolay Khramov of the Russian Radicals, and Sergey Konstantinov of the Free Radicals, dragging them to a detention truck. A Human Rights Watch representative witnessed Konstantinov being seriously manhandled by police, who wrenched his head back by the forehead.  OMON also arrested two Russian transgender activists.

Nationalists continued to attack the others physically. One struck British gay activist Peter Tatchell in the left eye, bruising it; others kicked his legs after he fell. Tatchell was not arrested, but police took him to a different truck for his safety—placing him there, however, with three extremists who had been arrested.⁹

Police also seized Bundestag member Beck together with his partner, and manhandled them by the arms across Tverskaya Street to another truck waiting near the Dolgoruky statue.  They also arrested Marco Cappatto and Ottavio Marzocchi, a European Parliament staffer. An ILGA-Europe representative witnessed OMON officers shouting at the latter as he was thrown into the truck, “Do this in your own country, faggot!” These arrested people were taken to nearby Tverskaya police station, on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street.

Across Tverskaya Street from City Hall, where groups of LGBT rights supporters had gathered, OMON formed four lines stretching across the sidewalk, and began marching down the street towards Red Square. They pushed peaceful and violent demonstrators alike away from the vicinity of the Dolgoruky statue—but rather than making any effort to separate the two sides, OMON forces drove both back towards one another. Skinheads and nationalists intensified attacks on people they believed to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender as the police advanced. Nationalists beat Alexey Kiseliev—member of the LGBT Rights group and a co-organizer of Moscow Pride—in the head till he bled, kicking him after he fell. Kisiliev told ILGA-Europe,

I was with my friend and fellow activist Lyubava. We saw a group of skinheads screaming “Moscow is not Sodom! No to pederasts!” We started to scream back, “No to homophobia!” Once they heard us, they ran at us and started to punch me. I fell on the floor and they continued to kick me, calling me a faggot [pidor]. There were plenty of police around, but none reacted to this violence.¹⁰

One witness told Human Rights Watch, “I ran back to the OMON and said, ‘Will you just try to stop them from beating him up?’ And they stood there in line and did nothing. The LGBT people were completely non-aggressive, not even holding posters—their only crime was being themselves.”¹¹

Similarly, Alexey Kozlov, a member of the environmental and left activist group Green Alternative, saw a nationalist carry out a violent attack on a supporter of LGBT rights:

I went to five policemen, OMON and ordinary police, asking them to arrest him. I pointed him out. An OMON officer said, “I have orders to stand here. If he attacks somebody here, I will arrest him.” A regular policeman told me to mail a request to the regional police office; “If they say it’s OK, we will do something.”  While I was talking to another OMON officer, the same guy came behind me and kicked me in the back of the leg, and the officer did nothing.¹²

OMON appeared to be colluding actively with the violent nationalist demonstrators. One of the nationalists approached an OMON officer and pointed out a Human Rights Watch representative; the officer immediately seized the representative and took him to the OMON truck.  (The Human Rights Watch representative was detained for only 15 minutes, then freed¹³).In a reminder of the environment of impunity, a lesbian told Human Rights Watch, “One of these aggressive people said to me, ‘Go to hell—remember, we have the upper hand.”¹⁴

The OMON ranks broke formation further down Tverskaya Street, and small groups of LGBT people and their supporters began trying to ascend the street, hoping to reassemble near the statue.  Alexey Kisiliev told ILGA-Europe, “I hobbled to Tverskaya Square Many of the women were members of the Anti-Dictatorship Movement, an informal group of activists.  One told Human Rights Watch,

The skinheads and Nazis ruled the streets.  We thought we might be killed, but we still held up a few rainbow flags.  Some journalists tried to speak to us, and then the Nazis came after us.  One of the skinheads was wearing a mask.  He tried to spit at me, but he forgot about the mask, and spat into his own face….

But the OMON who were on the barricades suddenly opened them up—“Would you please come here?” they called out, so nicely we were surprised! We thought they wanted to protect us by letting us in the square.  But they were only trying to lure us there.  They got us in the square and then arrested us, and threw us in the bus.¹⁶