Gay rights activists vowed Tuesday to hold a gay pride march in Moscow next week on the same day as the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Russia for the first time.

City Hall has repeatedly denied permission for gay pride demonstrations in recent years, and attempts to hold such marches in defiance of the bans have been marred by violence.

But prominent gay rights advocate Nikolai Alexeyev on Tuesday called on President Dmitry Medvedev to allow the marchers to demonstrate in Alexandrovsky Sad, near the Kremlin, should Mayor Yury Luzhkov refuse to allow the event on May 16, when the Eurovision final is to be held.

"There will never be a better time to raise the question in this country," Alexeyev told a news conference packed with foreign journalists. "If Medvedev and Luzhkov position Russia as a European country and invite Eurovision, the question of [gay] rights should proceed in a European way."

Alexeyev publicly posted an appeal on Medvedev's newly launched LiveJournal blog -- only for it to be removed soon afterward, he said.

At a Eurovision presentation in December, Luzhkov reiterated that a gay parade would not be allowed during the contest. He has previously called gay parades "satanic."

Up to 100 activists could turn out if the march does not receive permission from City Hall and up to 500 if permission is granted, Alexeyev said.

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Gay rights activists have been beaten and arrested during attempts to hold peaceful demonstrations in recent years. In 2006, more than 100 activists were arrested, including German lawmaker Volker Beck. In 2007, anti-gay protesters attacked British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and singer Richard Fairbrass of the band Right Said Fred, who were both arrested.

Tatchell plans to attend this year's march, as do activists from Chicago's Gay Liberation Network, Alexeyev said.

Eurovision organizers have not weighed in to support the demonstration, Alexeyev complained. "The Eurovision leadership does not want to get in contact and is practically a co-conspirator," he said.

In an e-mailed comment on Tuesday, Eurovision spokesman Sietse Bakker said he was aware of the planned march but stressed that the events are separate.

"Of course, we took notice of the aims of this organization to hold a gay parade in Moscow on the same day as the final. But we are not connected to this event and fully focused on the final preparations," Bakker said. "As guests in Moscow, we feel obliged to organize the event within the limits of local law. If organizers of other events decide differently, that is up to their judgment."

Russia's entrant in the contest, Anastasia Prikhodko, expressed tentative support for gay rights in e-mailed comments Tuesday. "I think love has no color," she wrote. She added, however, "I don't really understand the point of a special parade."

In a related stunt, one of the march organizers, Irina Fet, will apply for a single-sex marriage license at a Moscow registry office on May 12, the day of a Eurovision semifinal.

A Russian Internet journalist, Yelena Tokareva, heckled Fet at Tuesday's news conference, asking, "Why are you putting your sexual organs on display?"