Police raided the home of Nikolia Alexeyev, considered Russia's
most outspoken gay rights activist, after a lawmaker lodged a
complaint against him.
According to Reuters, Alexeyev's home was ransacked by Russian
prosecutors. Alexeyev said that the officials removed several pieces
of electronic equipment.
“Do you think this is all legal?” he told reporters pointing
to the debris left behind from the raid. “What if they now start
raiding flats every day, for instance? Storm the apartment. Throw
everything out. Pick everything up. And who will now clean all
this?” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Officials confirmed to Reuters that the complaint came from a
lawmaker who is opposed to gay rights.
(Related: Michael
Lucas op-ed angers Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev.)
In June, Russia approved a law which prohibits the public
promotion of “gay propaganda” to minors. Passage has provoked
worldwide outrage and calls to boycott next year's Winter Olympics to be
held in Sochi.
Gay
Star News reported that some landlords are encouraging people to
aid the police in locating violators.
“Please remember that homosexuals can be dressed quite simply,”
a notice posted in a building in Rostov-on-Don reads, according to a
translation provided by O-blog-dee-o-blog-da.
“He looks like you, he can be nice to talk to, and you can even
know him.”
“Remember that homosexuals do not know the age limit and a
person who does gay propaganda can be [a] person who just graduated
from school or an old man.”
“You can easily become a target of homosexual propaganda. There
is one step from being homosexual and to start propaganda of
homosexualism and molesting decent people.”
Human rights activist Melanie Nathan said that the notice was an
example of how Russia's laws were emboldening people to discriminate
against gays.
“This notice posted by the administrator of a building
illustrates that the so-called 'anti-propaganda' laws have led to
widespread persecution of gays,” she said.