Police dispersed a gay rally near Moscow’s City Hall on Tuesday and detained 10 of the two dozen activists who held an unsanctioned protest against the policies of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Luzhkov has called homosexuals “satanic” and thwarted all attempts to hold a legal gay pride rally in Moscow since 2006.
The activists were detained after they displayed a papier-mache doll resembling Luzhkov and unfurled posters ridiculing him.
A leading Russian gay activist, Nikolai Alexeyev, who disappeared for two days last week in a murky incident linked to his complaints against Luzhkov, said by telephone from inside a police van that he knew that Tuesday’s rally would not be allowed.
(AP, MT)
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